The LNER Encyclopedia

Does anyone remember Thelwall's Book Shop in Crewe? Is it still going?

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, I used to go to model railway exhibitions and invariably there'd be a book stall from Thelwall's selling railway books. Mr Thelwell, I can't remember his first name, was always helpful, even to the extent of saying "take it and pay me next time you see me" if you saw a book and didn't have enough money with you. He might have been in his 50s or 60s then with a thinning hairline.

Once I asked him about a set of LNER books I'd seen in my local library. He took my address and, lo and behold, a few weeks later the postman arrived with a parcel of books with a note inside saying "pay me next time you see me".

At one time, he went missing and wasn't at exhibitions for ages but he eventually returned. He'd been in hospital for surgery. I think he'd had a brain tumour or something.

In the mid 80s, owing to family matters, I stopped going and have often wondered what happened to him. I was in Crewe last year and asked a taxi driver if he'd heard of the shop but he hadn't.

taxi driver in Crewe(ski)? your lucky he could speak english.....

He was IC1 English. Lived in Crewe, brought up in Crewe but he still hadn't heard of it.

I can remember it!
I think it was called "Thelwall's Mini-Mart (or Market)" and I once bought an unmarked old ABC by post very cheaply. I also think that you passed the shop walking from the station to the works entrance, which I did regularly when the works allowed casual visitors if they turned up at 10am with a sixpence (though for me this involved joining the 00.15 Euston Crewe intermediately at an even more unearthly hour - but one could then pass the time between 0500 and 1000 visiting the sheds unchallenged, and a day return was available). You turned left out of the station then first through road on the right (??Mill Street) and it was a short distance along this road and (probably) on the right. Obviously closed on a Sunday in those days - you were supposed to be at Sunday School or church weren't you.
Because I ordered by post, he must have advertised in the railway magazines of the time.

Gosh! Didn't realise it was raised THAT long ago! However, at the recent Crewe railwayana event, I enquired of the 'locals' and he is fondly remembered. The first establishment was a kiosk on Crewe station forecourt, on the Rail House side, which was a sweetshop with railway books as a sideline. It was said to be difficult to determine which was the 'sideline' though. He later moved to a stall in Crewe indoor market and then to a shop outside the market, now occupied by a jeweller. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
Part of the difficulty in tracing his location might be because none of these locations had a formal address.

1H was 2E wrote: "Sadly, he is no longer with us."

Ah, thanks for that. Now we know. One time when I saw him in the 80s he'd been in hospital with something to do with his head, might have been a brain tumour. He was very helpful, If you saw something and didn't have enough money, he'd say 'Take it and pay me next time'. He supplied me over a period of time with my set of the green RCTS books.

One time we were talking about something and he said he had a set of three books at home I could have. Lo and behold, they were in the post a few days later with a message 'Pay me when you next see me.'

One of the people I spoke to said that he had an illness and recovered but it then came back after 7 or 8 years so I thought this meant some form of cancer, and this seems to confirm it. He still seems to be held in regard and remembered fondly amongst his former customers. I bought a 1960 unmarked shed book from him at about cover price so he was certainly not a profiteer (having, at the same Crewe event, seen a 1961 one change hands for £37)