Iconic department store celebrates 150th anniversary

Jacksons opened in 1875 and closed its final store in 2013

It was "a living history museum," says the former employee of a department store on its 150th anniversary.

Jacksons was founded in 1875, and its flagship store in Reading remained open until 2013.

Thomas Macey, began working in the store's school uniform department in 2004 when he was 16 and said he is "incredibly proud" to have worked in such an iconic local store.

"It was a museum both to Reading's heritage and also to retail heritage and it's left a huge hole because so many shops look the same nowadays and of course Jacksons was completely different," he said.

Mr Macey, says he is "proud" to have worked at the store

Mr Macey became a key holder and personal assistant to one of the directors and when the last store closed he was given the archives by the Jackson family.

"I've always been a bit of a history buff so anything to do with history gets my full interest, which is why Jacksons meant so much to me because it was such an old fashioned family owned business," he said.

He reminisced about the store's "old fashioned" shopping experience, comparing it to British sitcom Are You Being Served?

"We served you because all of the stock was held behind the counters and in glass cabinets and we had no tills, we had to send the cash by the cash railway to the cash office," he said.

Workers in the store would put the money from customers in glass canisters and send it through tubes to the office.

Jacksons was one of the last stores in the country to use this Lamson cash system.

Mr Macey said he actually bought part of the system before the store closed and now has it in his garage.

Workers cashed money using an old glass canister and tube system

The 38-year-old who now works at the Didcot railway centre will deliver a talk at the Abbey Baptist Church to around 150 people from the Reading History Society to mark the store's 150th anniversary.

"I'm a local man to Reading and when I was 16 and I had the chance to work for a famous local company, it was incredible," Mr Macey said.

He said it was an important part of Reading's history and will hold a lot of memories for the town's residents.

Mr Macey, commissioned for models of the store to be created

In 2020 Mr Macey, commissioned a model maker to create three scale models of the store at its former locations in the town in 1904.

"A lot of research went into this, we were looking through old archives and old photos," he said.

The "fully detailed" tributes to the store were finished this year and are currently at the Royal Berkshire Archives but are set to go on display at Reading Museum from 2 December.