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Woolworth's store in London Street, Basingstoke, prior to relocating to the new shopping centre in 1971

A RECENT late-night television programme on BBC2 told of the life stories of Harry Selfridge and Frank Woolworth, both of whom arrived separately in Britain in 1909, with the intention of opening up their businesses in this country.

Both enjoyed great success as shop after shop was opened.

This feature tells the story of Frank Winfield Woolworth, who opened one of his shops in Basingstoke in 1921.

Born in 1852, in Rodman, Jefferson County, New York, America, his early life was spent on a farm with his parents and younger brother. His education was at country schools and, afterwards, he was expected to work on the farm, which he hated. He wanted to leave home and find work which would give him more money with which to clothe himself as, in winter, he had no warm garments to wear.

According to a book published in 1947, Woolworth asked his father to take him into the town of Carthage when he was 21 to find work in one of the shops, but no one wanted to employ him as he had no experience in retail.

Eventually, he found a small shop run by a railway agent and he worked there for nothing to gain experience.

From there, he went to a drapery shop where he worked for a pittance.

At his next workplace, where he slept in the cellar, the shopkeeper gave him £2 a week, but he was so badly treated that he returned to his parents' farm, where he had a nervous breakdown and could not work for a year.

Frank Winfield Woolworth, who started the three-pence and six-pence stores

To make some money, he reared chickens. Then, from out of the blue, he received a message from a previous employer inviting him to work at a shop at Watertown, New York, for which he received a reasonable wage.

After a while, Woolworth, with an idea in his head, borrowed a large sum of money and opened a shop in Utica, New York, with the intention of selling small items for no more than five cents.

It turned out to be a failure, but he was not the type of person to give up, so he tried more shops with the same idea, but selling mass-produced goods, and this seemed to work.

As he gained more wealth, so he expanded his business with the help of his brother and cousin, this time selling goods at five and 10 cents each.

Some 1,000 stores were established across America and a 60-storey office building was constructed in New York and opened in 1913. It was the tallest structure in the world at that time, and it was from here that he ran his business.

Meanwhile, Woolworth was looking to other countries to sell his goods.

In May 1909, he arrived in Liverpool, England, where he later opened his first store in this country. Here he sold goods for three pence and six pence each. The number of stores in the UK eventually reached 1,000.

Frank Woolworth died in 1919, aged 66, having seen his business merged into the F W Woolworth Company some seven years before. His wife and children carried on the business.

Up until 1921, Basingstoke had yet to be selected for a Woolworth branch by the head office, but when William Cannon, the butcher in London Street, died in that year, it gave the retail firm the opportunity to acquire the premises.

A gang of workmen soon moved in to change the front and interior of the building and, within a few months, the shop opened with the title "3d and 6d store" to attract customers.

In 1935, this price limit was discontinued throughout all the Woolworth stores, which gave the firm the chance to sell more stock than before.

Also in 1935, the store took over part of the drapery shop of J Boyer, next door, to extend Woolworth's business and employ more staff.

In February 1959, the store was modernised and extended, but within a few years, news that a new shopping centre was to be opened in the lower part of the town made Woolworths realise that business would be better in that area, and plans to move were made with the development group.

Other high street shops, such as Boots the Chemists, Currys, Marks and Spencer, W H Smith and Burton, also moved to the large shopping areas in 1968, leaving the Top of the Town looking a little lacking in large businesses.

Woolworth moved to a three-storey building, called Chiswick House, in the shopping centre, where the whole interior was acquired. Part of it was made into a restaurant.

The shop was opened in 1971, the same year that the General Post Office opened up in the London Street premises that Woolworths had vacated. The GPO had been in New Street since 1925.

In 1993, Woolworths reduced its interior to half the size, allowing other shops to open up in the rest of the building.

The firm is now under the ownership of the Kingfisher Group in Britain.

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