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Over 30 members of the Eastbournian Society were entertained by a talk on the history of Eastbourne's department stores, held on Thursday 3 November in the Long Room.

The fully-illustrated talk was given by College archivist Paul Jordan (standing at the back of the group), who has a wealth of knowledge about the development of Eastbourne.

He spoke about the early days of the shops, many of which started out as haberdashers before expanding and taking on bigger premises, as they branched out to include women's fashions in their product ranges.

Many familiar names were mentioned, including Dale & Kerley, Plummers, Barkers, Beales and the fondly-remembered Bobby's. Paul also spoke about the many Old Eastbournian connections with a number of stores.

We were delighted that amongst the audience were a number of people who had worked in some of the stores, and they contributed their own reminiscences of times gone by.

An exhibition about Eastbourne's department stores is currently being held at the Eastbourne Heritage Centre. An accompanying booklet was co-written by Paul and contains further information and photos.