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© Doodle-to-Design

Better sit down to read this, it might come as a bit of a shock. Goulds, Heswall’s beloved independent stationers, is moving!

Thursday 11th June will see the opening of their brand new, bigger, brighter, better premises between Lloyds TSB and Pizza Express. As Heswall’s longest established business, this will be a momentous occasion for them. Anne Gould told me: “The construction of Castle Buildings, on Telegraph Road, was completed in 1936 and shortly afterwards, in early 1937, Goulds moved into the premises which have been our home ever since. Over the years we’ve seen some big changes - in the stock, presentation and staffing - but we’ve always stayed put.”



Goulds - as it looked in 1937


"However, since January this year, I’d been looking into alternative premises. We’d considered some local vacant premises and then rejected them for various reasons, but when I heard this particular location was becoming vacant, I really took to the idea, mainly because of the level of goodwill left by the previous business. Though, at present, we’ll keep it as a single storey business, moving to larger premises in a prime position has got to be a good move. Staff will increase from 9 at present, to 16.”

“We will close in Castle Buildings on Saturday 6th.June and open on the Thursday after. We promise our customers the same level of friendly, personal service but expanded ranges of cards, stationery, toys, musical instruments and art supplies – plus one or two ‘surprises’! There’ll be new products and some ‘razzamatazz’. We’re hoping another surprise will be that a local celebrity will be performing the opening on the day. It’s almost confirmed, but we can’t say more at the moment – except that we’re really excited!”


Anne outside the new premises



Joiner Brian hard at work inside!


Anne manages to juggle running Goulds with being a Mum. Long-suffering husband Dave, who works in the prestige car industry, jumps in whenever necessary, looking after their youngsters, Alexander 3 ½ and Robert, just 21 months old. Mr Gordon Gould, Anne’s father, still pops in to keep an eye on things but after so many years in the family business, these days he really values time taking holidays with his wife, Margaret.

Though Anne is the figurehead of this thriving business, she says she could never do it if she didn’t have Louise who is a “superb manager”, and the rest of the staff who are all “absolutely wonderful”, to support her.

In 2004, Goulds celebrated it’s Centenary, so now they’ve been a successful business, going from strength to strength, for 105years. Not many can say that.

They must be doing something right - maybe they should give lessons!

Computer Aided Drawing
of the proposed layout