AN exhibition celebrating a chain store that held a special place in the hearts of families throughout the area opens in Bishop Auckland this week.

Selling everything but food, Doggarts branches throughout the old County Durham area were where families furnished their homes and kitted out their children for school.

Everyone who shopped there remembers handing over their money and waiting for the change to come whizzing back through an overhead system of pneumatic canisters.

It wasn't just that Doggarts was a family-run store, staff and customers were part of the family as well.

In Bishop Auckland it had the best site in town with windows facing both the Market Place and Newgate Street.

Founded in 1895 by Arthur Robert Doggart, this was the first of the 13 branches which spread across the old county Durham, employing 1,200 people and trading far beyond its 'Drapery and house furnishings' banner.

Arthur had arrived in Bishop Auckland from Glasgow in 1992 as hosiery and fancy buyer for 'an old fashioned drapery business' at Auckland House, on the corner of the Market Place.

Not short of initiative, Arthur took over the business and ran it his own way. A committed Baptist, he became president of the Baptist Union and brought Christian principles to his commercial dealings.

His son Jamie, whose brother Sandy was due to open the display in Bishop Auckland Discovery Centre this week at which 30 former members of staff were invited, said: "We called ourselves a family store. That was our ethos. We served the family and all Doggarts' staff were a family too."

Having to announce the closure in November 1980, he said, was the worst day of his life. Hit by recession and rising wage costs, Doggarts was too large to become a self-service operation and too small to have the buying power of larger chains.

The exhibition was instigated by Bishop Auckland's town centre manager Derek Toon, and the town centre forum, which hopes to find a site for a permanent display. Research was carried out by Discovery centre staff.

Mr Toon said: "When I arrived in September 2003, everybody spent the first six months telling me that it has never been the same since Doggarts closed. Girls met their boyfriends outside Doggarts window, people got married who worked together there, families shopped there every week. It wasn't just a store, it was an institution.

"Obviously I can't bring it back, but to get an exhibition together has been my ambition since I came here."

The display opens to the public today and runs until August 6. The centre, in Bishop Auckland Market Place, is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 10am until 3pm.