| Dan Entwisle |
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Is Dawns still there? I remember it as the most amazing shop. My folks would go there and buy DIY stuff, they had a machine that mixed paint into any colour you wanted.
There was an upper floor at the back which sold toys. The Corgi cars were in the corner. Looking round the attic of my Mums house recnetly I found a few of them.
What was the story behind it?
I suppose the next bit should be in another topic.
If I recall right, the shop was opposite - or in the same street at a really nice Polish chap called Joe. He had a Bedford CA van and used to fit carpets.
Dan
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| phil |
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I can't remember Joe the carpet man(I had 2 C A Bedford campers in the mid 70s and scrapped them both after years of great camping with the children,went all over Europe in one of them and people even took pictures of the Van over there..Wish I had them now)but dead opposite Dawns lived Gordon Palmer the renowned football referee.
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| Kevin |
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All this is 45 years after leaving Stamford, can't vouch for a perfect memory or Polish spellings! Dawns Discount (I think that's what it was called??) took the premises over from The Co-op (my mother worked there for years). Unless there was more than one Polish family, opposite and a few doors up from Gordon Palmer lived the Lawniczak family (pronounced Wavnejak). Don't remember what he did or him being called Joe, maybe a nickname, his proper name was Karel (which always amused my mother, didn't understand why a bloke would have a girl's name!). My mother always called his wife Win Dunn (guess her maiden name?). Two children were Leon and Maria.
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| dan.entwisle |
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I don't know about the spelling - so apologies. I've remembered his surname it was pronounced Shamanski - ? I remember Pope John Paul II hadn't been long in the job and my Dad joked with him that he was a dead ringer for the Polish Pontiff. He did look a bit like him.
So has Dawns now closed?
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| Andy Matthews |
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There was a gentlemen called Joseph (Joe) Symanski (pronounced Shimanski) who lived on Doughty Street but a little further on than the shop but opposite side of the road to the shop. I guess that's who you are thinking of Dan. He had an upholstery business and had a workshop on North Street. He has passed away now but I believe his wife still lives there and he had a son and daughter. Dawn Discount closed in the late 90's and is no longer a shop. It was originally built as a Coop many years ago.
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| Dan Entwisle |
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That'll be the chap. Sorry to hear he died, he was a nice chap.
I guess Dawns went the way of many independent shops.
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| Clem Walden |
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Hi Andy, Joe Symanski (Shimanski) as you say had an upholstery business in North Street. He was a great guy and very good at his chosen craft. I had a 1957 Ford Prefect (first car) the roof was a soft type canvas and whilst driving home from Leicester one Winters day I got caught in a very heavy snow storm. The roof caved in! needless to say I got a little cold and wet. The following day I went to see Joe Symanski at his North street workshop. Seeking his expert help, Joe fitted a brand new roof on my 1957 Ford Prefect. I know his son Paul but can't recall his daughter. Paul plays golf and snooker with a friend of mine Craig Cameron and I have played with them at times. I told Paul Symanski about my 1957 Ford Prefect and how his Dad in the early 1960s helped a young man with his first car (I was 22 years old at the time) Fond memories.
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| Kevin Vinter |
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Just for info - Mrs Palmer still lives opposite to the old Dawns.
Both Szymanskis and Lawniczaks lived in Doughty Street (I was at school with Leon)
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| Tim Stubbs |
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Not sure when Dawn's closed but it was there in the late 1980s. I used to live in Drift Avenue and used it all the time as a general convenience store. it rented videos and still mixed paint!!
As an aside, I used to live next door (in Drift Avenue) to a lovely old couple - he purported to have been Montgomery's driver during the 2nd world war. They would have been in number 24.
Hi Tim. Yes, I remember that paint mixing - I think they also used to have a heater cabinet where you could heat a pie? : Kate
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| Tim |
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Yes Kate, it did. It really had all the mod cons!!
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| Chris Fountain |
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I remember the Co-op from the 1950s when the school bus picked up from outside the shop me and several others to take us to the Bluecoat School. Your recollection of the Lawniczak family is correct - his name was Marian and his wife, Win was my mother's best friend (we lived in Ryhall Road). Marian had been a Polish paratrooper during the war and had been involved in Operation Market Garden in 1944. He kept chickens at the bottom of his garden. There was a son, Leon, who became a carpenter I think in Peterborough and a daughter Maria who worked for the old TSB in Ironmonger Street. After she married she moved to Barrowden. I remember that the first time I saw a television programme was at their house when the Queen's coronation took place. In Doughty Street on the opposite side to the Co-op and further along the road there were up to the 1950s allotments and I seem to remember my Grandfather having one but the 'new' houses were built on them late 50s early 60s
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| Kevin M |
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Hello Chris ..... been a long time! Yes, of course, Marian not Karel (entirely the wrong "girl's name!).
Hi Kevin sent email address as requested.
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| Chris Fountain |
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Kevin M - am I right in assuming you lived in Lincoln Road - if so good to hear from you. Do you still support the 'Posh'? I remember playing many games of cricket and football in the Blackstones sports facility in Lincoln Road
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