The heyday of Newport - the county town of the Isle of Wight - perhaps lasted until around the 1980s, following which it all started to slowly change, with parking charges limiting your shopping stay.
The budding supermarkets gave shoppers free parking and people started to desert the high street.
Scroll through the gallery of pictures above and see which shops you recognise!
Gradually well-known shops started disappearing and here we look at a few of the names that have vanished from our high street.
Beavis had been a familiar name for many years and specialised in household goods, china etc.
And who remembers the pink stamp shop? Yes, not only were there green shield stamps, but also rivals pink stamps.
Even regional newspapers had a presence on the high street with the Portsmouth Evening News.
- Remembering old shops in Newport Isle of Wight in bygone days
- How many of these bygone Newport shops do you remember?
- Tales of butchers, bakers and makers in Isle of Wight town
A major furnishing shop in Newport used to be The Army and Navy stores, who took the store over from the long-established Morris of Newport. Fosters were one of the popular outfitters of the period too.
Finally we see St James’ Square before it had been part pedestrianised and in the centre of picture stands Wadhams, another well-known local furniture shop, while to the right is Victory cleaners, the local dry cleaners for Newport.
Both of these local businesses had been around for many years.
Like reading stories about the Isle of Wight in bygone days?
Click here to visit our Looking Back section for more interesting tales!
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