27/01/2026
Continuing our look at the history of 12 Sheep Street—now home to Isaacs Working Jewellers —we turn to 1899, when the property became a branch of Lipton Ltd, possibly the first national chain store to establish itself in Skipton.
The story of Lipton’s is the story of, Sir Thomas “Tommy” Lipton. Born in Glasgow in 1848 to Irish immigrant parents, Lipton began his working life helping in his father’s small shop and collecting goods from the Clyde docks. At just 15, he took a job as a cabin boy and later moved to America, where he worked on plantations and in Stewart’s department store in New York.
Returning to Glasgow in his early twenties, Lipton opened Lipton’s Market. He brought back lessons learned in the USA: low margins, high volume, and fixed prices. He also revolutionised supply chains by buying directly from farmers, cutting out middlemen and increasing profits. His clean, brightly lit stores, uniformed staff, and affordable goods at set prices transformed grocery shopping in the late 19th century.
Lipton’s fame soared when he turned his attention to tea. In 1890, he purchased plantations in Sri Lanka, standardising blends and packaging to ensure consistent quality—a move that gave him a competitive edge and made Lipton Tea a household name worldwide.
By the end of the century, Lipton’s Markets were opening across Britain, and Skipton was no exception. Earlier openings were grand affairs, featuring publicity stunts such as giant cheeses filled with gold coins, butter sculptures in shop windows, and even parades of live pigs causing chaos in city streets. Skipton’s launch on 25 August 1899, however, appears to have been more subdued, marked only by large advertisements in the Craven Herald.
The Rowley Ellwood collection includes three photographs of 12 Sheep Street as Lipton’s Market—more than we have for any other High Street property. Central in all three is one man: John Rimmer.
Born in 1880, Rimmer moved to Skipton around 1902 after working as a grocer with his brother in Wigan. He managed the Skipton Lipton’s branch for 20 years until its closure in 1920. Afterwards, he opened a café and confectionery business in Exchange Buildings (now NatWest) and later converted his home on Keighley Road into a confectioner’s shop. Rimmer married Elizabeth Potts, originally from Thornton near Bradford, who was a baker and confectioner. Politically Conservative, Rimmer nonetheless served as President of the Skipton Shop Assistants’ Union (1914–15), represented them on the Trades and Labour Council, and co-founded Castle Motor Bus Services, which ran between Skipton and Barnoldswick before being bought by Ribble. When he died in January 1934, aged 54, the Craven Herald described him as “very well respected,” noting that his advice was often sought on financial and business matters.
Standing beside Rimmer in one photo is William Ernest Edwards, a Liverpool native who moved to Skipton in 1906. Married in 1914, Edwards enlisted with the 6th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in December 1915. After surviving the war, he worked for Refuge Insurance on the High Street and was active in Skipton Congregational Church, serving as Sunday School treasurer and on the Finance Committee. He died suddenly in 1937, aged 49, leaving a wife and daughter.
The identity of the boy in the photograph remains uncertain. The only clue is the name “Greenwood,” though whether it is a first or last name is unclear. Two boys named Greenwood were born in the Skipton district in the 1890s, both from Barnoldswick, and both died in the First World War—but neither obituary mentions work as a grocer’s boy.
Lipton’s vacated 12 Sheep Street in March 1920. An auction advertised in the Craven Herald listed fixtures and fittings for sale, including mahogany cash registers and marble slabs—giving us a sense of how ornate the shop once was. Decades later, a modern Lipton’s branch opened in Caroline Square (now Savers) in 1976 or 1977, but it closed in 1983. Lipton Tea, however, remains a global brand and can still be found on supermarket shelves today.
Next week, we’ll explore the next occupiers of 12 Sheep Street…
