A popular store for Hartlepool brides choosing their wedding dress

And when it involves reminiscing on the best shops from times gone by, you really are top notch.

We asked Hartlepool Mail followers to let us know what they remembered about some favourite old retail haunts. More than 10,000 of you spotted the story and dozens shared memories.

Our archive photographs showed Edgar Phillips, Graftons and Hector Grabhams in Hartlepool as well as Woolworths in Peterlee.

Top of the lot in your recollections was Graftons.

Julie Mcgrahan told us: “My Mam, Margaret Madge, worked as a cleaner in Graftons, in the 70’s, she used to buy me something new to wear, every week lol.

“She would bring home giant plastic bags which I assume were over the dresses at delivery, we would tie one end fill it with air then tie off the other end. Think I invented bouncy castles lol.”

Janet Ainsley said: “Got my wedding dress from there,it cost £25,a lot of money in 1978 and I’ve still got it x”

Sylvia Liddle told us: “My mum who had business did alterations for graftons and Paige’s and several other shops in west hartlepool.”

Elizabeth Barnett said: “My mam bought my coats there back in the 60s” and Liz Hind remembered: “I was their saturday girl.”

Karen Ellis said her mam “bought me a navy blue maxi leather coat from there, I thought I was great lol.”

Sheila Robinson had lots to tell us.

“My great grandfather Albert Theodore Peppert was a foreman plumber at Edgar Phillips well before 1923, then my grandfather Albert Henry Peppert started work there in 1923 and was presented with a watch for 50 years service when he retired in 1973.

“I can remember as a child him working with plans laid out on the dining room table for new houses being built on the Owton Manor estate. My great uncle Les Peppert also worked at Edgar Phillips but he persuaded my dad not to keep up the family tradition but to join the RAF as an apprentice in 1954.

“I can also remember Graftons clothes shop as this is where I bought my wedding dress in 1974.”

Others to comment were;

Joan Tunnicliffe: “Grafton’s and Paige’s lovely shops when we were young.”

Ann Webb worked in Graftons “in the late 60s to early 70s.”

And Beverley Yeoman Glover remembered the Edgar Phillips shop, telling us: “I loved trying to get around Edgar Phillips. You didn’t need many customers (or staff) inside to fill it up, but it sold anything and everything.”

Thanks to everyone who responded. To get in touch with your memories, email [email protected]