Castlederg hardware and drapery shop closes after 121 years

May 25, 2023

A County Tyrone hardware and drapery shop has closed its doors after more than 100 years in business.

The Kyle family, from Fivemiletown, opened WJ Kyle in Castlederg in 1902.

Despite huge advancements in technology over the years, not much ever changed in the shop.

There was never a till or a card machine the same gas lamps were used from the 1970s.

"There just isn't another shop like this," said Karen Jack.

Her mother, Margaret Jack, nee Kyle, ran the shop for years.

Karen and her brother Brian had recently been helping out in the shop until its closure on Friday.

"There's an awful lot of history in it going back - my mum spent her whole life here," said Karen.

"I can remember my grandfather; he always sat in the office in the drapery and did the books.

"It was a much bigger business at that point in time. There would have been two staff that worked in the hardware and two in the drapery.

"It was always a store that was frequented and used by everyone in the community."

Brian says the shop was very much like a "throwback to the old days" and added it has "always been very traditional".

Karen added: "My mum was of that generation that didn't see the need to move with the times or change anything."

While many things in the shop did not change much, it did see a fair amount of change.

Brian said bombs blew the windows in the shop out 16 times during the Troubles.

"I remember being at the back (of the shop) and there were so many bombs I knew the sequence," he said.

"You had the fire siren, the police would call and I saw the policeman coming in and I knew something was happening.

"We hadn't time to get out so we had to sit it in the back of the shop on what used to be bales of grass seed and the thing went off.

"I remember the shockwave coming through. I remember hearing everything breaking because there used to be rows of tea sets on the windows and every bomb, the windows blew in and all the china on the windows shattered."

For sisters Hazel Burke and Iris Baxter, coming to the shop has been something they have done since they were children.

"We've always come to Kyle's for everything you wanted - you can't get it anywhere else, you get it in Kyle's," said Hazel.

"The shop has never changed from when I was small, its still the same, same decor, everything."

Mick Harkin's wife Ann worked in the shop for 44 years, until it closed.

"I'm very sad that its closing, I would have bought a lot of fishing stuff here in my younger days," he said, adding that it was going to be impossible to get what he needed now without going out of town.

Jean Bogle said the closure of the shop was "the end of an era".

"I have always come in and been able to get things that I needed," she said.

"It will be harder because there is nowhere else in Castlederg like it."

Former councillor James Emery has co-written three books on Castlederg and its history.

He said Kyle's was one of the oldest businesses in Castlederg and was an important part of the town.

He added the Kyle family were also auctioneers that sold houses and land.

In 1937, the shop was destroyed in a fire on Christmas Day which was called "one of the worst fires experienced in County Tyrone" by the Strabane Weekly newspaper.

It had to be rebuilt in 1938.

"I was always fascinated by the counter which is still there from 1938 which you wouldn't find in the modern day shop - it's all changed," he added.

"Someone once said: 'If Kyle's doesn't have it, you don't need it'.

"It's a big loss, people will have to travel either to Strabane or Omagh."

The 83-year-old clocking off work after 66 years