{"id":1483,"date":"2026-09-18T16:27:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.famethemes.com\/techone\/?p=34"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:43:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:43:23","slug":"anicent-woolwortha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/?p=1483","title":{"rendered":"ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER WOOLWORTHS STILL OPERATING IN POWYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of archaeologists working in Powys has uncovered a fully functioning Woolworths, complete with prehistoric pick \u2019n\u2019 mix, special offers on four-packs of VHS cassettes and a woman who insists they use a basket.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discovery is being described as the most significant retail excavation in Welsh history.<\/p>\n

Researchers initially believed they had found an abandoned shop, until a member of staff emerged from behind a display of extension leads and told them they couldn\u2019t bring all that muddy equipment in here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were astonished,\u201d said lead archaeologist Dr Bethan Price. \u201cEverything was intact. The fluorescent lighting, the price stickers, the faint sense that your mother was somewhere nearby buying pegs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store\u2019s manager, who wished to remain anonymous, appeared unaware that the branch was considered historically significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe open at nine and shut at half five,\u201d Maureen Purves, 69, explained. \u201cExcept Wednesday. I don\u2019t see what\u2019s complicated about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbon dating has established that the oldest pick \u2019n\u2019 mix dates from the 1970s, with several layers of more recent sweets deposited on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary record,\u201d said Dr Price. \u201cYou can trace decades of British confectionery through the strata. Cola bottles, foam shrimps, then a dense geological layer of something that may once have been a fried egg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempts to extract a sample were interrupted by Maureen, who pointed out that the sweets were sold by weight and the little archaeology brush wasn\u2019t going to change that.<\/p>\n

One particularly old toffee has been sent for further analysis after bending a chisel.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the team discovered special offers on four-packs of blank VHS cassettes, prominently displayed beneath a sign reading \u201cDON\u2019T MISS A MOMENT!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maureen confirmed they remained popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like to tape things. You never know when something good might be on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bargain bin has also yielded singles by Culture Club, Depeche Mode and Madness, all priced at 59p.<\/p>\n

An excited researcher described the records as \u201cpriceless cultural artefacts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re 59p,\u201d Maureen corrected. \u201cIt says it on the sticker.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team believes the shop may have survived through a combination of geographical isolation, unreliable communications and Maureen\u2019s refusal to act on anything that hadn\u2019t been confirmed in writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead office went very quiet,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019ve worked in retail long enough to know that\u2019s usually a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the discovery has brought crowds of visitors, including several men who entered out of curiosity and emerged carrying a washing-up bowl, three singles and enough videotape to record the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

There are now calls to preserve the entire store as a living museum.<\/p>\n

Maureen remains unconvinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople wandering round, picking things up, saying they remember them and then leaving without buying anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already got that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of archaeologists working in Powys has uncovered a fully functioning Woolworths, complete with prehistoric pick \u2019n\u2019 mix, special offers on four-packs of VHS cassettes and a woman who insists they use a basket. The discovery is being described as the most significant retail excavation in Welsh history. Researchers …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,18,2],"tags":[24,26],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-news","category-old-news","tag-wales","tag-welsh-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/welshbollocks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}