Roadshows Take Off
The first roadshow
In March 1949 Leslie Glasswell persuaded his father Jerry to stage a furniture exhibition. Unable to book The Old Town Hall, Bury, they decided to hire Haverhill Town Hall. There was no furniture store in town at this time, and despite the £100 hire cost, it was an opportunity to promote the name of Glasswells further afield and by taking it for a few days, meant they could create attractive furnishing displays in room settings.
Looking back, Leslie says “The exhibition was probably the biggest chance we ever took in business. We had ordered goods which we did not normally stock and had to pay what was the an enormous rent to display them”. Leslie and Jerry need not have worried. The show was a huge success, and with the Town Hall packed with visitors, takings soared to £3,600 in three and a half days. Compared to an average £500 weekly take at the Bury Shop, this was a staggering amount. They immediately began looking for permanent premises in Haverhill.
In the meantime they took a stand at the first post war Trades Fair in Bury. It too did good business. This was followed by a second Haverhill exhibition, which was so successful they decided to stage exhibitions every Saturday in the town’s Corn Exchange until a shop could be found there. Further exhibitions were held in Bury Old Town Hall and then, starting 5th October, 1950 their first show in the much bigger Bury Corn Exchange. The Bury Free Press reported it as “The biggest show ever held in Bury by a single Trader... More than 6000sq.ft. of space featuring £6,000 worth of goods”.
Furniture Exhibitions, A Repeated Success
Over 100 furniture exhibitions were staged in the Bury St Edmunds area over a period of 20 years. Organising the shows entailed a great deal of work. Don Boughton, who joined the staff in 1953, spent many hours with Leslie, often working through the night sorting out details of the next event. Exhibitions were organised so that they moved in sequence from Bury to Haverhill and on to Newmarket, Saffron Walden, Thetford and Mildenhall. Each tour lasted several weeks in the Spring with sometimes another run in early Autumn.