Gallery Title
Gallery Title
suitcase
Accession Number GRSRM : 2012.3.1
Description
Suitcase made of leather. It is very worn on the outside and and the colour has been scratched off. It used to be blue, but now appears brown. The inside is lined with printed, patterned paper (also very worn). It has a metal handle and 2 locks. It contains a variety of clothing and haberdashery that were sold by the owner of the suitcase. The suitcase was owned by local hawker, Frederick Beckerton who lived in South Pickenham. He cycled around the local villages selling goods from his tricycle, and sometimes travelled on the buses selling goods from the suitcase.
Read Moresuitcase
These suitcases belonged to Frederick Beckerton, a travelling salesman who sold items from them during the 1940s -1960s. Known as Freddie, he was born in Norfolk in 1908 and lived in South Pickenham. He was later described by his daughter as ‘registered blind, a thin man, pigeon chested with curvature of the spine’. Despite this he travelled extensively around local villages on the bus or on his red tricycle selling tinned food, clothing, chocolate and haberdashery. Neighbours would often knock on his door on a Sunday night trying to buy food after the shops had closed, something that annoyed the religious Freddie. Found in his attic after his death, the suitcases still contain the nylons, wool and cleaning products that made up his final stock.
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