City's oldest hardware shop saved from closure

Two businessmen are to reopen a 160-year-old hardware shop five months after locals thought that it had closed for good.

W.H.Mogfords & Sons in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, shut in September last year after years of declining footfall.

But now Benn Hann and John Cox, who run Cotham Hardware in Clifton, have taken it on and plan to stick with the shop's eclectic range of stock and old-fashioned ethos.

Hann said: "We know what these kind of shops mean to the community and it seemed such a crime that such an important shop was going to close down."

Speaking to BBC Bristol, he said. "I feel the weight of history on my shoulders but it's really cool - the response we've had from the community has been overwhelming, it's just been incredible.

"We've been getting people saying 'we've got to support it because we've lost it once' - they don't want to lose it again."

Long time resident Dawn Payne said she was delighted when she learned the shop had reopened.

"I've been coming (to Mogfords) for years getting this, that and what have you. And everything's all here," she said.

"I'm so, so pleased to see it's open, it's part of Westbury."

Heather Andrews, who has lived in Westbury for 30 years, said: "The high street had taken a bit of a hit anyway, then to lose something that had been here for over 100 years, then for it to come back and still be called Mogfords - that's great."

Cox, who works in shipping services, and is a long-time friend of Hann describes himself as a silent partner in the business.

He said that they were not seeking to make a large financial gain from the new venture.

Cox has taken on the entire building, and is seeking to turn the upper floors into flats to keep Mogfords viable in a landscape dominated by big hardware chains and online shopping.

"(Mogfords) is Bristol. It's part of what we are," Cox said.

"It's for the older generation that can't get to the bigger shops or feel afraid to go into the larger ones.

"That's really why we've done it."

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