Old picture of Weymouth Woolworths up for sale in 1984

F W Woolworth and Co Ltd opened a store in Weymouth in 1923. The store was numbered store 139 and was extended and redeveloped in the 1930s, with the addition of an Art Deco facade.

It was rebuilt in 1980s elsewhere in the town and closed as a Woolworths store in 1999.

Many readers fondly remember shopping in Woolworths or working in there.

Sue McDermott tells us: "I had my first job there at the age of 14, stocking up shelves in the grocery section. I then went on to make up the paper payslips for the Saturday staff. Finished there when I was 16 and started my dental nurse career."

Zoe Bates considers herself 'a Woolies baby' as her mother and father met in the shop. Her dad is Trevor Price, who met Gail Townsend at the Weymouth Woolworths store in the early 1970s.

The loss of the store is a great one for William Pulman. He says: "We are all still grieving the day the company decided we should be without it."

'Jane' tells us: "I have happy memories of working there as a Saturday girl in the 1980s, we worked hard but had lots of fun. That shop literally sold everything! It’s a sad loss for the town."

For Denise Barrett Woolworths was her first job when she left home. She says: "I loved the broken biscuits, and wafers.. in deep tins."

Weymouth's Woolworths store photographed in 2006

Greengage jelly you could buy in Woolworths is what Carole Brackley misses most.

A visit to Weymouth Woolworths was a weekend tradition for Sadie Johnson. She says: "Every Saturday morning I'd go with my nan and grand dad to buy a Rupert Bear book for 7p with my pocket money book to add to my collection."

Susan Chadwick used to work at Woolies. She recalls: "I started weekend work 1966 (14 yrs old) on the jewellery counter....following year it was school holidays and weekends on the Deli fresh cut meats (ham, corned beef, salami's), cheeses, salad dressings in little tubs! Then I had to get a proper job.....having left school (16 yrs old)."

For Anita Ward working at the shop ran in the family. "I worked there until the day before it closed on the 25th January. So did my Mum, Brenda Smith and sister in law, Jenny Smith."

And James Mayo has very early memories of Woolworths. He writes: "Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the round red leather stools at the cafeteria counter eating pink iced buns with mum, wooden floors and square counters with a lady sales assistant inside. Happy days. I was three or four at the time."