Wildings was a retail company with its main

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

based in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, which closed in 2019 after 144 years of trading.

Background

The first Wildings shop was opened in 1874 by Alfred Wilding, a 21-year-old hatter from

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. By the mid 1970s there were 14 branches of Wildings across

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. By the 1990s only the Newport store remained, though in 1997 Wildings acquired an existing department store business in Commerce House,

Thornbury Thornbury may refer to: Places ;Australia *Thornbury, Victoria * Thornbury railway station, Melbourne ;Canada * Thornbury, Ontario ;England *Thornbury, Devon * Thornbury, Herefordshire *Thornbury, Gloucestershire **Thornbury Castle **Thornbury (UK ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. Wildings substantially reduced the size of its Thornbury shop in 2017. The flagship Newport store had been trading from its site on

Commercial Street, Newport Commercial Street is a 700-yard (660-metre) long main shopping street leading from the city centre of Newport, South Wales. History and description Commercial Street and Commercial Road were created in 1810 across open pasture land which had to ...

since 1931. It underwent a major £140,000 refurbishment in 2014. Wildings Group also ran the Rossiters shops in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. Wildings Ltd is now a small property company with interests in Bath, Newport and Thornbury.

Closure

In October 2016 the Newport store closed two floors of its shop, discontinuing its menswear clothing and women's lingerie sections. 14 staff lost their jobs. In August 2018 the store announced it would close completely, laying off the 23 staff. A closing-down sale began in October 2018. The Newport store finally closed its doors for good on 19 January 2019.

References

{{reflist Shopping in Newport, Wales Retail companies established in 1874 Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom