Preston changes every year - churches become restaurants, terraced houses become cafes and you always seem find yourself thinking 'was that there before'? The inevitability of change is something we witness daily but hidden between great slabs of modern day infrastructure, you'll often find a timeless and perfectly preserved piece of the past.
The first of a trio of stores was opened on 159 Friargate where Mr Yates manufactured and repaired watches. Four years later, he married his wife Mary Hartley and it was at this point of his life where not only his career grew but his family too. While the youngest daughter Emma Yates, married and moved to live in Liverpool, Hannah stayed with the family business. Never marrying, she took on the responsibilities at the shop but in 1890, Mr Yates died aged 78 leaving behind just under £2000 to his name.
In the audience during one of his impromptu public sermons one day was an elderly lady called Miss Hannah Yates - who also did not approve of strong alcohol and after some inquiry, she discovered that James was also a watchmaker. Not long after, Miss Yates decided to sell her family business to James under one condition - that he would keep her father's name above the shop.
At the war's end in 1945 Roger came home to run the business once again. Roger Rhodes sadly died in 1968, leaving the business in the hands of his son David, again just like his father before him had done. "I've always liked the building in fact, I used to sit by the Cenotaph and just look at it and think it's a lovely shop that I wish it was mine and I never dreamed that get it and then it just happened that while we were down in Friargate, the lease was coming up for review and I was paying about, I think it was £3000 a year," David said.