Doggarts was a chain of department stores based in the North East of England, with their head office and main store located in

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

History

In 1892 Arthur Robert Doggart, from Aldershot, moved to

to take up a position of Buyer of Hosiery and Fancy goods for a drapery business based in Auckland House, on the corner of Market Place. By 1895, Doggart had taken over the business and started running the business his own way. He expanded by opening a further store in Shildon, and by setting up the Doggarts Club. This was an interest free way for the poor miner families to buy furnishing and clothing from the store. Arthur Doggart was a committed Baptist, becoming the president of the Baptist Union. The Business which sold everything but food, grew to serve many of the mining communities in the North East with new stores being opened. In 1933, Doggarts spent £30,000 on building a new store in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

. At one point the business had 17 branches, but all were operated from the main store at Bishop Auckland. The branches were: *

* Ashington * Billingham * Chester-le-Street *

Consett Consett is a town in County Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in 2019. History Consett sits high on the edge of the Pennines. Its' name originates in the ...

* Crook *

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

* Durham *

Houghton-le-Spring Houghton-le-Spring ( ) is a town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county. It is s ...

* New Shildon * Peterlee opened 1968 * Seaham Harbour * Shildon * Spennymoor *

Stockton on Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

West Stanley South Moor is a village in County Durham, in England. It is located to the south-west of Stanley, County Durham, Stanley on the northern slope of the Craghead valley. It is a well-developed village, yet still semi-rural, containing a main street ...

* Wingate, County Durham To assist with the running of the Doggarts Club, two business were set up. Ashton Supply Company and the Economic Clothing Company at one time had 800 staff travelling across County Durham to collect payments from Doggarts customers. The business was known for its Green Vans, Pneumatic Change dispensers and Hand Painted Price tickets. During the 1970s, the business had its own Rally Car entered into the RAC Rally, driven by Nicky Porter and navigated by John Parker. However death duties and inflation had hit the business hard, and the business was too small to bulk buy to match the big chains. In November 1980 Jamie Doggart announced the business would close, which at the time still had ten stores, with the loss of 340 jobs. The Bishop Auckland store finally closed its doors on Christmas Eve, 1980.

The family

The Doggart family have been good at sport - Arthur Doggart's sons

Graham Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan G ...

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

& Norman played cricket for Durham. Graham also played for England in Cricket and Football, and was the Chairman of the FA between 1961-1963. Arthur's grandsons Peter & Hubert also played cricket, with Hubert playing twice for England in 1950. Arthur's great grandson Simon also played first class cricket.

References

{{Reflist Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1895 1895 establishments in England