A Glossop Apothecary

There’s an empty shop that stands at 7 High Street West and I’m sure we all wonder what will happen to it. It’s been part of Glossop’s heritage for such a long time, as Finlay McKinlay’s and latterly as Cohens Chemist. The shop with its proud coat of arms that still sits above “By appointment to His Grace The Duke of Norfolk”.

What will happen to this piece of history I do not know but finding out a bit more about its past was easy thanks to Fay Hartley and her book, A Glossop Apothecary…

“A Glossop Apothecary traces the development of pharmacy through the work of seven owners of 7, High Street West, Glossop from 1838, when the premises were built by Bernard Edward Howard, the 12th Duke of Norfolk to the present time.

Thomas Peacock Wreaks, the first Chemist and Druggist became one of the first members of the Pharmaceutical Society on 1 July 1852. A tenacious man of “experience and of aptitude for public business”, he was elected a Councillor in the first Glossop Borough Council of 1866. The Ducal Crest emblazoned above the shop door, bearing the Duke of Norfolk’s motto “Sola Virtus Invicta”-Virtue Alone is Unconquerable- dates from his time of occupancy.

After her husband’s death in 1869, widow Phoebe Wreaks sold the business to Chemist and Druggist, Robert Proctor for £1,000. A £500 lump sum was paid but the £100 yearly installments were not completed by 1872 when Phoebe Wreaks herself died. Indeed Robert Proctor had many creditors, soldiering on throughout the boom and bust of the cotton industry. In 1897 he sold the business to the mason and Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, William John Grace Moran. W.J.G. Moran is remembered for the famous Moran’s Bronchial Elixir for which extravagant claims were made. He died in 1912 and the shop is supposedly haunted by his sombre spectre.

The prescription books from 1840- 1899, with quantities specified in imperial units, illustrate the vanishing art of the apothecary. Pills were specially formulated for the aristocracy, The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, Baron and Lady Howard, The Earl and Countess of Arundel and Surrey, their estate agents and entourage. Pills for the agents included those for gout, severe pain, draughts for constipation and alcohol induced eczema or worse! There were large balls, formulated in gentian powder for horse doping!

Other prescription entries for cholera outbreaks among railway navvies and parasitic worm infections in mill workers, demonstrate the poverty, overcrowding and unhygienic conditions of the working people. There were many deaths in infancy and childbirth which led to low life expectancy even in the families of the first three chemist proprietors at 7, High Street West, Glossop.

My grandfather Finlay Mckinlay, Member of the Pharmaceutical Society, who had been apprenticed to W.J.G Moran took over in 1912. He was a business man who “never kow-towed to anyone”. He soon installed electricity and joined local (UCAL) and international (United Drug Company of Boston –Rexall Goods) trading organisations. In 1924 a lengthy dispute with the Royal Warrant Holders Association challenging his right to display a Coat of Arms resembling the Royal Arms was resolved when Finlay was instructed to insert “ by Appointment to His Grace the Duke of Norfolk” in place of “Late Moran”. Fast selling lines during wartime were Paragon anti-gas tape for windows, Samuel Yates seeds for allotments and bulking baby foods. Finlay Mckinlay died of lung cancer in 1951 to be succeeded by my mother, Edith Oliver, who had qualified as a pharmacist in 1944.

After he left the RAF, my father Noel Oliver, changed field from Electrical Engineering to Pharmacy, gaining a degree from Manchester University in 1948. He continued to promote Rexall products in an international advertising campaign. An attempt to collaborate with the other High Street Independent, Messrs. Rideals to prevent “leapfrogging” proved unsuccessful. On 5 July 1998, the 50th Anniversary of the NHS was marked by an article in the Pharmaceutical Journal featuring Noel and Edith Oliver.

I qualified as a pharmacist in 1974 and recollect Victorian Weekends, break-ins, encounters with all types of inspectors, disputes with Woolworths and embraced the New Pharmacy Contract. My sister, Pam and I continued the business after our parents Noel and Edith died in 2001 and 2002. None of our children wished to continue the business and on the 2nd May 2006 we sold the business to brothers Y & A Patel trading as Cohens Chemists.” By Fay Hartley