This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 26th November 1992

Who remembers the good old days when Worthing grew its own grapes and was famous for tomatoes that tasted so much better than those grown elsewhere? That deliciously sweet taste, only from those labelled 'Worthing tomatoes.'

The earliest ones, grown in hot houses and in the shops around Eastertime were a much sought after luxury afforded only by the better off.

Some of you will recall a familiar town centre greengrocers -- Feest & Sons -- the main subject of this week's feature, triggered off by a letter from Goring reader Jimmy Feest:

'I read your article 'A Schoolboy's love of Tarring' (WSG 23/1/92) with considerable interest as I also spent the first 20 years of my life in the area, and the rest in Worthing and Goring.

'Feests greengrocers shop you mentioned on the corner of Canterbury Road was in fact a branch of the main business in Montague Street, and was purchased by my grandfather in 1936, staying in the family until I sold the property in May 1978 to local builders Hickie & Lewis.'

Prior to 1936 it had been owned by a Mr Mills.

Feest & Sons was very much a family business, which Jimmy has traced back as far as 1851, for the census of that year lists his great great grandfather William Feest as a greengrocer of 38 Montague Street. Known as 'Shylock', it is thought he started the business as early as 1830; and it has been said he soon became a familiar Worthing character on a cart drawn by six Newfoundland dogs.
'As far as I can tell,' Jimmy said, 'his shop was on the north side of the road and somewhere in the block between Portland Road and Liverpool Terrace.'

Greengrocer William, who didn't let the grass grow under his feet, worked hard to expand the business: in 1866, he purchased a three storey property from auctioneers Messrs Hide and Patching, bidding what was then a large sum of money -- #315 -- for a shop on the south side of Montague Street: number 39, later renumbered 67 and then again to 87.

William passed on in 1902, leaving his son Jim to run the business in partnership with grandsons Jim Edward and Horace. By 1910, the shop next door had been purchased, thus doubling the size of the Montague Street outlet.

Profits for that year were good, amounting to #636 13s 2d (#636.66p). Identified in the accounts under expenditure was this particularly interesting item -- 'Ponies Shoeing Fodder Vans & Trucks #91 18s 11d' (#91.94) -- clearly setting the period in an age when horse transport was in constant use.

Some of the produce sold in the shop was supplied by F. Allen, one of the town's leading fruit and veg wholesalers of the time, whose depot was in Chandos Road.

The horses used for pulling the delivery carts were kept in rented stables in Montague Street, just opposite Surrey Street.

At a time before telephones were universal Jimmy explained how urgent orders were obtained. 'Even though the shop itself had a telephone before 1910, to get orders for the same day delivery, the shop girls were sent round to large houses on their bikes.'

This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 26th November 1992