Strung together very agreeably, with dry wit and, dare I say it, considerable polish' - Country Life The toolbox stays where it always was but is - to use the jargon - 'in a better place'. I can look at it without a shudder of shame. And I have issued instructions to myself and others that items from it ARE TO BE RETURNED TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM." A hymn to hardware . . . charming . . . This book tells a quirky tale of subculture, a shrine where many of us worship.

Fort appeals to the craftsman in every reader from the position of a fellow traveller on the journey to accomplishment, perhaps never to arrive. His gentle humour lifts us away from the memory of our past misdeeds. A celebration of the quintessential cornerstone of any village in Britain – the shop – in this case a century-old hardware shop in a beautiful Berkshire village. In 2018 Tom Fort's daughter-in-law took over a century-old hardware shop. The family dreamed of developing the shop into one that would become the centre of village life; that much did come true, but not in the way they had expected.

Customer reviews

Strung together very agreeably, with dry wit and, dare I say it, considerable polish’– Country Life

This very readable book has a simple structure held together by the story of one family's revival of a village hardware store in England and the gentle humour of the author and his role in the success of Heath & Watkins. Each short article gives the reader just enough information to acquaint themselves with the miracle of the ingenious solutions people have found to the problems of running a household. The hardware store is an emporium of solutions to just about everything. Shro and her team build up a wealth of know-how they can share with customers seeking the answer to whatever needs fixing. In 2018 Tom Fort’s daughter-in-law took over a century-old hardware shop. The family dreamed of developing the shop into one that would become the centre of village life; that much did come true, but not in the way they had expected.

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