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Shop looks for former staff to mark 250th birthday

Chris Lockyer & Luke Knight
BBC News, Somerset
BBC The exterior of the Hatchers store on Taunton High Street. The shop front is painted dark red and cream.BBC
Hatchers began trading in 1775

A family-run department store is looking for former staff to help it celebrate its 250th birthday.

Hatchers opened as a drapers in 1775 in Dorset and shortly after moved to Taunton where it remains open. It claims to be one of the oldest department stores in the country.

"A lot of people work for Hatchers... and many of those stayed for a long, long time, including those who spent their entire working life at Hatchers," manager Mark Raisey said.

Store managers want to hold a celebration of Hatchers, including getting as many former staff as possible to be in a group photograph to mark the occasion.

Hatchers An old photograph from 1900 of the Hatchers store. It is a sepia photograph and shows a man standing outside the shop.Hatchers
Hatchers managers said the store had diversified over the years

Hatchers has had several homes since it moved to Taunton.

It has been based in Hammet Street and Fore Street as well as in the building opposite its current home on the High Street.

Mr Raisey said: "I don't think any of them ever set out to be department stores.

Stephen Hill and Mark Raisey are standing in front of washing machines in the shop, looking at the camera. They are both smiling.
Stephen Hill and Mark Raisey currently manage the store

"Through natural expansion and diversification they started to do a few more things and department stores evolve and they eventually become department stores.

"We're a variety store," he added.

Stephen Hill, who also manages the shop, said: "I started in 1999 in the toy department.

"I literally got dragged in by my father because he was a bit short staffed and off I went as a 16-year-old boy selling toys at Christmas."

Mr Raisey said his fondest memories were those where he would spend his summer holidays with the shop's carpet fitters.

He said that up to 90 people were employed at the store during that period in the 1980s but now those numbers had declined due to efficiency.

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