John Smith Co News Today

A TIMES Past reader who worked in Glasgow’s famous “golden spinning wheel shop” has died just a few months before her 100th birthday.

Robin Longbottom on how the town was once a centre for tobacco and pipe manufacturing

“That was my family’s business, I worked there in the 1980s,” he told us. “John Smith & Co wool shop was based on Sauchiehall Street and when it closed down, the spinning wheel, which was displayed on the façade, went to the People’s Palace.” Our story had been prompted by Carol Davies, who wanted to find out more about the shop her mother Jane – now 97 - had loved dearly when she worked there as a young woman in the 30s. Fergus added: “I was so touched to read Jane’s...

WHENEVER she talks about her life in Glasgow, Jane Davies lights up at the mention of Sauchiehall Street. In the 50s and 60s, this was the grandest street of all, full of elegant department stores, stylish tearooms and beautiful boutiques. The 97-year-old can remember the old shops, and loves to tell her daughter Carol all about them. One particularly intrigued Carol, however, who is helping her mum compile memories of her life in Scotland and England. “My mum mentioned Smith’s, w...