Bill and Muriel Tucker, aged 97 and 88 respectively, were both born and bred in Tavistock and have contributed to the exhibition by way of loaned items and taped interviews of their memories — which can be heard as you explore the museum.
Mrs Tucker said the new exhibition was 'wonderful' and they were proud to be contributors. 'It is really remarkable. Those behind it need a pat on the back,' she said.
Just walking up the steps to the museum rekindled memories for Bill Tucker, who used them every week when he worked for the Town Council.
Mr Tucker's other memories included the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould coming to Tavistock to shop: 'I used to see him every Friday. He went from Lewtrenchard to Colyton station by pony and trap and then took the 11 o'clock GWR train to Tavistock.
'I used to work as an errand boy at Palmer's grocery shop and I used to carry his parcel up to the train at 4 o'clock every week.'
Mr Tucker said the Rev Baring-Gould had told him: 'My boy, I hope you grow up to be a good man', which he had always tried to live up to. 'He was a wonderful old man,' Mr Tucker said.
William Crossing, the Dartmoor writer, used to live a few doors away from Mr Tucker for a while around 1915 and every day Mr Tucker used to take him to sit in Nicholls and Hill, a shop owned by a Mr Collins, where the gentleman spent the day talking to customers until Mr Tucker took him home.
Mr Crossing gave Mr Tucker a copy of one of his first books.
Included in the museum exhibition are over 1,000 local advertisements dating from 1860, including one for tenders for dung removal from the streets of the town in 1872. Another for the Union Hotel in 1919 stirred memories of the proprietor Sammy Scown, who used to be teetotal although running a bar, said Mr Tucker.
There are photos of past shops — including the first self-service at International's in 1962 — and a section of 'then and now' photos. One 1932 one of Carr's showroom on the site of the current NatWest Bank building brought back memories for Mrs Tucker, whose brother had been the first employee of Carr's and repaired motorbikes originally in a lean-to at Wallabrook for 3/6d per week.
The display also includes old bottles, stone jars, bread tins and souvenirs from Tavistock's shops, including a large stone jar marked 'Grafton & Scott, grocers, Tavistock'. These complement the many other interesting artefacts on other topics, all of local interest, in the museum.
The museum took advantage of the visit by the couple to find out the names in a group photograph of the St John Ambulance Brigade and members of the constabulary taken between the wars.
Mr Tucker was able to supply them as he had been a divisional officer in the brigade.
Linda Elliott, chairperson of Tavistock & District History Society, has collected the shop items over the past five years and has researched and organised the display.
She said the collection will never be finished. 'More people keep saying they have something for it,' she said.
Another of the 'then and now' photos features the former Congregational Church — a 'sad loss' according to Mrs Elliott — and the replacement buildings.
The Shops of Tavistock exhibition, at the museum in Drake Road, is on until October. Opening hours are Wednesdays and Fridays from 10-12 noon and 2-4pm and Saturdays from 10-12 noon.