AT the turn of the century, independent and corner shops served the needs of East Lancashire's families.

No one had heard of a supermarket and customers would go from store to store for their purchasers - a lack of fridges also meant that a daily shopping trips were the norm.

This photograph shows F and W Dawson, which used to sell fresh produce at 26, Castle Street, Clitheroe in the early 1900s.

There are rabbits and game hung out on racks, the cold slab on the right offers the housewife an array of fish, while on the right there looks to be a small shark.

Net curtains at the windows on the first floor reveal that someone also lived above the shop.

The shop is still going today, though David and Mary Brass who took it over almost 40 years ago have changed from selling fruit, vegetable, fish and game into its current format as a newsagent's.

David had started working there as a young teenager, preparing vegetables after school and Saturdays, before becoming a partner, then taking over the business,

The couple prided themselves on offering the freshest fruit and vegetables, which David selected daily from Blackburn wholesale market, often leaving home at 3am.

In the early days, local and British grown products were the norm but, they also sold fresh Israeli strawberries at Christmas time and exotic kiwi fruit - new to the market.

Said Christine: "We wer proud of our bananas - wrapping them in an old purple coat in cold weather.

"We had all sorts of fresh fish, including live lobsters walking around the fish display window, which could be opened to the street, as well as bony gurnets, cockles and mussels, trout, salmon and halibut which was exotic in those days."

Earnest Masters was the resident fish expert and he worked in the shop, which would always be packed out on Fridays, all his working years.

The shop also sold locally shot pheasants, which were plucked and dressed in the back, as well as guinea fowl, grouse, rabbits and, occasionally, venison.