A real-life âtoy storyâ
âWistful Playâ is a real-life toy story and, which for me, represents a 360 degree, 100 year, journey through family history which began in 1920 after my paternal grandfather settled in Scarborough, North Yorkshire after the first world war.
Harry and Lilian Wilderspin (my paternal grandparents)
Harry had first discovered Scarborough in spring 1916 when he enlisted as a WW1 volunteer and found himself initially posted from his home in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, as a 1st Battalion Hunts Cyclist helping to patrol the north east coast.
It was during this time that he met his future wife Lilian, a local Scarborough girl. They were married on December 26th 1916 at Holy Trinity church in Scarborough with Harryâs Hunts Cyclists comrades in attendance. (Collage)
Harry wins the Military Medal at Passchendaele
On 19th September 1917 Harry was shot in the thigh but saw action again on 20th September when he was shot and wounded twice more whilst leading his platoon in the vicinity of Winnipeg farm during the battle for Menin Road Ridge at St Julien â an act of bravery and achievement for which he was awarded the Military Medal.
Post WW1 civilian life
Those early post-war days back in Scarborough must have seemed very odd after so much conflict and turbulence but Harry seemed to settle back into civilian life fairly quickly and undoubtedly benefited from the influence of my grandmother who, although physically quite delicate, had a will of iron and disposition that proved to have such a major bearing on the development of the family business in the years to come.
1920 - the family business is founded
Harry had trained as a saddler before WW1 and found that his post-war skills were transferable in other ways after returning to Scarborough.
One particular instance of this related to the repair of cricket and tennis equipment. Both sports gained tremendous public popularity in post war Britain and local interest in Scarborough was especially boosted by the town becoming host to major annual cricket and tennis tournaments which attracted the most famous players of the time.
Harry became involved in repairing cricket bats and re-stringing tennis racquets for the visiting star players and, as a result, developed a local reputation for these specialist services. By 1920, my grandparents had founded âWilderspinâs Sports outfittersâ where locals and schoolchildren could purchase sports equipment and clothing and have tennis racquets and cricket bats serviced and repaired.
1939 â the impact of WW2
As for many others, the impact of the second world war affected both family and business quite dramatically. Although by now well into middle age, the apparent sense of national duty that Harry had first exhibited in WW1 seemed to manifest itself again but, this time, also inspired Lilian to enlist too and both family life and the business and were mothballed until 1945 when the family returned to Scarborough and set about resuming the business.
Brand development and expansion
Aged 16 and with his education severely disrupted by the war years, my father had no real option other than to go into the family business on its re-opening in the rather dark and austere days of immediate post-war Britain.
However, his influence resulted in a new chapter of brand and business development and between 1946-1960 he set about expanding the business into toys and games as mass plastic production gathered pace in post WW2 years and gave rise to a product explosion which neatly dovetailed with the Baby Boom years, the end of rationing and a return to personal prosperity fuelled by government post-war public investment.
During this period, two more shops were established in Scarborough: in the townâs main shopping street at 48a Westborough; and on North Marine Road, one of the main roads leading to the north bay seafront. By the late 1950s, dad was effectively managing the business and Harry and Lilian were thinking of retirement.
The acquisition of No.59 Victoria Road
Dad was keen to expand the Victoria Road business and which resulted in the acquisition of the adjoining property at No.59 Victoria Road. Physically and layout-wise, No.59 was almost the mirror image of No.57.
At street level, the dividing wall between the two retail units was removed which resulted in the creation of a single, large shop unit completed in 1960 and announced to the world via a grand opening ceremony complete with ribbon-cutting, champagne and cake!
The end of an era By the early 1980âs, out of town retail parks and brands such as Toys R Us had changed consumer habits and the trading landscape was becoming much harder for independent local businesses. Also, people were increasing holidaying abroad courtesy of packaged travel and Scarboroughâs traditional annual influx of visitors and day trippers was on the wane. This signalled the end of an era for the original family business and dad eventually sold the bricks and mortar and retired in 1985.
Me, myself, IâŚ.
From the moment I was born, I grew up surrounded by, and immersed in, the wonderful world of toys and games retailing and the everyday ups and downs of family-business life.
Some of my earliest and most vivid memories are of spending hours in the three shops with dad and granny at weekends, school holidays, lunchtimes and after school, I naturally seemed to absorb all the various trials and tribulations of everyday retailing but my favourite event was the unrivalled excitement of delivery lorries pulling up outside and their drivers depositing a myriad of large boxes on the shop floor â followed by several hours of pure joy lost in the tasks of helping to unpack, price and display the most amazing array of wondrous things from tiny toy soldiers to enormous pedal-operated cars and tractors and with beautifully crafted wooden sailing boats, rock-pool nets, role-play costumes, cap-guns, electric train sets and Scalextric.
Whenever my parents were out socialising, I would stay overnight with my grandparents above the Victoria Road shop and would sneak downstairs early evening and enter a big magical world where I was the only inhabitant. One of my favourite past-times was riding around on the trikes, pedal cars and other âride-onsâ. I also loved the new and exciting building-block concept that was âLegoâ and which, in the early 1960âs, I actually saw being made at the factory in Wrexham â all those enormous vats of densely coloured liquid plastic!
From toys to veterinary science to real estate to digital - and back to toys!
I was never encouraged to go into the family business and, after the disappointing realisation that my understanding of chemistry would never lead to my being a vet, I somehow ended up working in real estate in London followed by a career switch to the digital sector and which lasted until semi-retirement in 2014. However...
Wistful Play
âŚI always knew that I would ultimately need to dabble in the commercial world again and found myself having nostalgic visions of rocking horses, kaleidoscopes, snowstorms. spinning tops and tin money boxes and, so, âWistful Playâ was born!
Like many people of a certain age, I have become increasingly nostalgic in recent years. In my own case, such nostalgia has unexpectedly â but delightfully - led me to the idea of trading in traditional toys and games and which is proving to be a lovely thing to have re-connected with.
2020 is such a fitting year to be overseeing its launch as itâs effectively 100 years since my paternal grandparents founded the original business. What would they make of it all now?
Retail is obviously changing. When dad retired in 1985 it was all about supermarkets and out-of-town retail and, now, ecommerce.
However, I still firmly believe in the need to have an offline retail presence but which is seamlessly connected to its online counterpart. For me, in 2020, my preferred offline retail entity is local markets.
This is where you can be up-close-and personal with real people out doing their shopping and who, for me, represent all the various generations with different toy and game buying motivations.
Obviously, for now, I can only realistically meet customers face-to-face in my own catchment area but there are many lovely old market towns within 90 minutes drive in which I plan to sell my wares during 2020 and, hopefully, beyond. Iâll be advertising my market diary dates via Facebook and digital newsletter so if youâre in North Yorkshire and are a market-shopper then I look forward to seeing you sometime at my stall!
Otherwise, please feel free to follow me and âWistful Playâ via social media and the website blog and sign up for periodic digital newsletters and special offers.
Happy traditional toy and game shopping!
Merryn Wilderspin
01/01/2020
