It is thirty years since Bourne End’s very own department store closed its doors. Shortlands (the full name of Arthur Shortland Ltd had been dropped in the 1980s) had been at the centre of village life for almost 100 years. Situated on the south side of The Parade, the double-fronted shop had changed dramatically over the decades.
Early years When the shop first opened at the turn of the twentieth century, it was tiny and just one of several branches of Langstons Boot Stores. W B (William Bradby) Langston had opened his first shop in Marlow High Street in 1884 at the age of just 22. Within a few years he had established another in Marlow opposite the first, as well as shops in Lane End and in Boscombe, Hampshire.
So how did Langstons become Shortlands? John Shortland, Arthur’s grandson explains, “Arthur had come to work in Marlow as a sales assistant, fell in love with the boss’s daughter and they married in 1907. This, of course, makes William Langston my great-grandfather – by the time I started working for the business in 1971, I was the fourth generation.” In late 1914, the name over the door of the Bourne End shop changed to Arthur Shortland and Arthur and his young family moved into the accommodation above.
With the outbreak of war Arthur, a deeply religious man and a conscientious objector, was sent to work on the land, his sister Edith left to run the business. With others fighting on the Front, feelings ran high in the village and the family business suff.