Shops and Shopping: The Small Shop Through the Ages (2)

We take shopping for granted nowadays, using our local shops (if we still have them) and going to the supermarket.  We can even order on-line and have a home delivery at our convenience.  How different was it for our ancestors – would we recognise a medieval shopfront in our own High Street and how many have survived?  And what about shop signs and shop names – how have they changed?  Do you have shopkeeping ancestors?  Who really said that the English are a ’nation of shopkeepers’?  Dr Jane Pennington will present an interesting history.

photo: St James’s Street, Brighton (from collection of David James Green)