The Early Years
Rolf Ian West was born in Bugsworth on Silk Hill in 1932, schooled in Buggy and started working for Higginbottom's in the area. He moved on to learning electrics installing wireless' sets, wiring houses and working in the local cotton mills.
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In 1962 he took a job working for Hotpoint's Trafford base servicing and maintaining their machines in the "High Peak" area.
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Eventually he had a falling out with some of the senior figures at Trafford (as he was inclined to do) and so set out on his own offering the same service but working out of his garage on Eaves Knowl in New Mills.
Well known in the local area, with a full customer book (after calling round and poaching all of Hotpoint's customers) Rolf quickly outgrew his garage and set his sights on a shop.
"The Shop"
In December 1973 Rolf bought the double fronted shop in Newtown (now part of New Mills) which we still operate from today.
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The shop was formally a tailors and butchers but a refit was undertaken and it soon became a show room, rear workshop and storage cellar.
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The shop was run by Rolf and two or three staff members until 1980 when Rolf's son, Paul Ian West, fell out with a senior manager (as he was inclined to do) at a local steel works. Rolf offered up the option to join him at the shop and the partnership was born.
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The family shop took on the final core member when Rolf's daughter Sandy Bailey began working in the shop. The family trio and extended family ran the shop for the next three decades.
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In ??? the family expanded the business and opened a second shop in Buxton market place. The shop was run by a husband and wife team with Paul split between the two shops doing repairs and deliveries for both.
The Third Generation
Throughout the years the shop has always been a home from home for the family, providing much needed work / pocket money for us grand kids during our weekends and school holidays.
In addition Corrina Bailey, Gareth West and Ryan West have all spent some years working full time at the shop between finishing our time in education and before starting off on our own personal careers.
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In late 2019 Rolf West passed away and the shop had been being then run by Paul, Sandy, Corrina and Kim Burgess until Covid began. Due to the extremely traditional nature of the shop, so effectively zero web presence, the business struggled on run only by Paul. In March 2021 Paul West passed away unexpectedly from cancer and the shop was kept ticking over by Kim Burgess.
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In May 2021 the shop began reoperating full time under the two new owners Hilary West, Paul's wife and Ryan West.