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Looking back on Adnitts department store - the precursor to Northampton's Debenhams

Debenhams is set to close - but 50 years ago, the store on the Drapery was a hub of Northampton's hustle and bustle.

Northampton is set to lose another of its high street names after the collapse of national chain Debenhams was announced yesterday (Tuesday).

When the store in the Drapery shuts, it will mark the loss of the last remaining department store in the town centre.

But stepping back 50 years, the Northampton shop used to be one of the town's centre's of hustle and bustle, when it still traded as the long-gone "Adnitts".

The Northampton store has been in Debenhams hands since 1952 when it bought Adnitt Brothers, who had been a feature on the Drapery dating back to the late-1870s.

The Chronicle & Echo has dug through its archives and unearthed these snaps of Adnitts in its hey-dey, such as when in 1965 shoppers queued around the block to get at its New Year's Day deals.

Have a stroll down memory lane and see the history of Northampton's lost department store legacy here.

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