1867 has always been special for Heart of the Shires. It had been referenced on the Heart of the Shires website prior to the current management team buying the site, in 2018.
This was written by the then external marketing co – Ideal Marketing, who wrote “When you walk around the bandstand, it doesn’t take too much imagination to work out that the low roofed buildings that surround it were once stables. If you look for more clues you may notice a date of 1867 in the brickwork.”
When we took over the marketing in 2018 were left perplexed when we discovered no 150th anniversary had taken place in 2017! Following the purchase of the site, a roundel design was introduced in June 2018, featuring a large 1867 and a slogan “Shopping heaven from 1867,” following this approval the roundel was used on a large number of online graphics (such as on the Heart of the Shires Facebook account and website) from 2018 until 2023 when other retailers were concerned that their graphic elements were advertising the new restaurant, rather than their own businesses and customers would be confused. So the roundel was dropped.
The Uniqueness of 1867
1867. I am but a number. Excellent quality food, location and great service is a thing – but surely that is what every restaurant, by whatever name, seeks?
Just like this one. An eatery called 1867. It can be found at Tyne Theatre and Opera House, in Newcastle. We’d hazzard a guess the Tyne Theatre and Opera House opened in 1867.
The 1867 describes itself as “the perfect place to come for a daytime refreshment or a pre-show meal. It is also the home for the theatre’s in-person box office sales.”
Oh Canada – Oh Big on 1867.
1867 is a big thing in Canada, being the date – 1st July, 1867, when “Canada was created”
…and just like The Little Chef, it seems the 1867 restaurant chains are no more, so new one-off’s are able to use the name. This 1867 (below) can be found on 262 Reid Street, Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada, and very tasty it all looks too.
Talking Turkey, there’s an 1867 in Turkey – although now known as Türkiye. The 1867 there can be found in Adana, Çukurova, Karslılar Mah., Adnan Menderes Blv., 75A.
It looks rather good inside, (see below) with a huge space, great looking food and here some great 1867 branded glasses – the ones you drink from rather than seeing clearly.
So there we have it. We have literally travelled the world in a few minutes to see what is out there referencing 1867 – the year Heart of the Shires was built.
…and to finish, back in June 2018, we put this little piece together:
1867 At the Heart of History
Heart of the Shires was built in 1867. That’s over 150 years ago, it’s difficult to imagine what the world was like then. Amazing to think what hadn’t happened or been invented.
Obviously the whole of the 20th century hadn’t happened, with a huge social reform to the modern standards of living we enjoy today however, in 1867, the lightbulb hadn’t been invented (1879: Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison both patent a functional Incandescent light bulb), there were no cars (1886: Karl Benz invents the first petrol or gasoline powered automobile), no radio (1895: Guglielmo Marconi invents a system of wireless communication using radio waves), or telephones (1876: Alexander Graham Bell has a patent granted for the telephone).
The year of 1867 itself had several significant events, in the UK:
February – the Society of Arts inaugurates the Blue plaque scheme, advanced by William Ewart, for erecting memorial tablets on London houses previously the homes of notable people, the first being at Lord Byron’s birthplace, 24 Holles Street, off Cavendish Square.
May – Laying of the foundation stone of the Royal Albert Hall by Queen Victoria
July – the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel demonstrates dynamite in a quarry in Redhill, Surrey having patented it in the U.K. on 7 May.
September – Sheffield Wednesday F.C. are founded at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield. Wednesday is one of the oldest football clubs in the world of any code.
October – Thomas Barnardo opens his first shelter for homeless children, in Stepney.
6 November – National Society for Women’s Suffrage, the first such national campaigning group, is formed by Lydia Becker.
Worldwide too had these notable events:
February – Johann Strauss waltz “The Blue Danube” (An der schönen blauen Donau) is first performed, at a concert of the Vienna Men’s Choral Association. Strauss adapts it into its popular purely orchestral version, for the International Exposition in Paris, later this year.
February – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
March – Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia.
August – The Canadian federal election of 1867, held from August 7 to September 20, was the first election for the new nation of Canada.
December – In a New York City theater, English author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
An impressive year – Queen Victoria had been on the throne for the past 30 years – and would continue to 1901. Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States. Johnson was vice president and became president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (in 1865) – Remember that one for the pub quiz!
Yet to happen was Custers Last Stand (Battle of the Little Bighorn) (1876), Rourkes Drift – Anglo-Zulu war (1879), Powered Flight (1903), even Coca Cola (1886).
Plenty there to chew on – yet in 1867, you couldn’t as Thomas Adams had yet to invent chewing gum, he would do that in 1870!
Heart of the Shires – shopping heaven from 1867.
