Do you remember a little train at Boswells department store in Oxford?

Can anyone remember the train that took children to see Father Christmas in the basement of Boswells store in Oxford?

That is a question one Memory Lane correspondent would like answered.

The reader writes: “When I was a child (I am now 73), I was taken by my mother to Boswells department store.

There, in the lower floor, I took a ride in a train (not a real one) to see Father Christmas.

“It was a highlight in the build-up to Christmas and very exciting. But where is the little train now, I wonder? Can any of your readers help?”

The reader, who has not revealed his or her name and address, wrote in after letters in our sister paper, The Oxford Times, questioned the disappearance of the imposing gates at the former Morrell’s brewery in Oxford.

One set had been struck by an Oxford council dustcart and the owners of the site, now flats, arranged for both sets to be taken away for repainting.

A search through the Oxford Mail library files going back to 1952 has provided no answer to the Boswells question.

Richard Reynolds, three, of Barton, on a Christmas shopping exhibition with his parents at Boswells in 1961

There is no mention of a train taking children to see Santa among the numerous cuttings about toys on sale there.

In fact, there is only one reference to trains at all. In October 1962, the Mail reported: “There are hundreds of train sets from which to choose - from the small clockwork models at 19s 11d to large electric sets at £28.”

Toys were certainly an important part of trade at Boswells, with hundreds of families visiting the store, particularly in the run-up to Christmas.

As we have recalled, the business was founded by the Boswell family in 1738 and traded at 49-50 Cornmarket Street for more than 100 years.

It remained solely in Cornmarket Street until 1928 when Boswell House in Broad Street was completed.

A wall was knocked down to link the two shops.

In an interview with The Oxford Times in 1959, senior director Mr AH Pearson recalled how, in his early days with the company, staff worked from 8am to 8pm and before Christmas and at the beginning of the university term, up to 14 hours a day.

Before electric lighting was installed in colleges, undergraduates relied on oil supplied by Boswells to light their rooms.

Boswells announced it was to close in November 2019 and it closed for good early in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic struck.

It had been trading since 1738 and was the second oldest family-owned department store in the world.

Shoppers were stunned by the announcement and about 70 staff were called to a meeting and told they were being made redundant.

Read again: Schoolboy 'banned from having chocolate spread'

The store’s directors said the closure was taking place due to ‘adverse trading conditions’.

The Boswells chemist was the last department to serve customers before it shut and the building is to become a hotel.

Debenhams department store opposite has now also closed, leaving John Lewis at the Westgate Centre as the city’s only remaining department store.

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