Bennett’s Dept Store, Derby

Another Family Connection – which I had placed on Facebook earlier

Bennett’s Department Store in Derby was founded, and run by George Bennett, who had the great taste to marry Sarah Paulin, sister of Frederick Paulin.

I will begin with a chart…..

The store has just closed – sad, but there are a lot of articles on the internet which describe the store and its history, particularlythis one

George Bennett, a retired Master Mariner, bought the company in 1864. He lived on North Parade, a Georgian terrace in the Strutts Park area of Derby, as steeped in local history as Irongate. Bennett lived at number 13, a house with four storeys, high ceilings and a garden that stretched down to the River Derwent.

He expanded the company even further. Goalposts, tennis nets, cricket bats and croquet sets were sold alongside farming tools and guns. Being an old sea dog, he had the store laid out like a sailing ship. Wrought iron stairways climbed up to nautical-style landings throughout. Examples of these can still be seen above the Ironmongery Department, which retains a ship-like quality, as if in memory of George.

Bennett passed the company down through his family. He had five daughters and four sons, but only one grandson, who was killed in the First World War. The last remaining Bennett sold the company in 1937, when it became Bennetts Irongate Limited, but continued to thrive as an independent family business

 

Others below describe its closing, and give great pictures…..

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/troubled-bennetts-department-store-claimed-2524922

https://blog.derby.ac.uk/2019/10/the-fall-and-rise-of-bennetts-of-derby-a-tale-of-two-business-models/

https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Derby-department-store-bennetts-sold-to-french-sole-owner,1112053.html