Wright time to retire for market trader Ray

AFTER five decades of serving the public and helping to create countless curtains, outfits and interiors, Ray Wright has retired from his market stall.

Ray (72), owner of Samantha Fabrics, has been a Rotherham market stallholder for 51 years after following in his father’s footsteps.

But he has served his last piece of fabric and waved goodbye to his loyal customers to concentrate on the firm’s haberdashery and interior design shop in Wath.

He said his last day, on June 3, had been fun and he was kept busy saying goodbye to everyone.

“A lad called Ray, who sells fruit and veg, and Charlie from the egg stall surprised me with a bottle of brandy and a card,” he said. “I’ll miss the camaraderie and banter with the customers.”

Ray said what was important about being a successful market trader was being polite and friendly.

“You’re not just selling your goods, you’re selling yourself,” he said.

Ray said that working in his Wath shop was a different environment to his stall, but the same demeanour was still needed.

Rotherham markets had always been an important fixture in his life, Ray, of Broom Lane, explained.

“My dad was on the market, he used to sell household goods and would drag me down when I was five years old as they didn’t have babysitters then,” he said. “He retired at 70 and handed the stall down to me.”

Ray started off by selling roll ends of fabric on the outdoor market in the early 1960s, where he remembered being sandwiched between bone china sellers Potty Edwards and Eastwoods Fishmongers.

As a business-minded young man, he would trawl fabric mills in Manchester and bring unique pieces back to Rotherham.

Ray said at the same time he was also selling pieces of curtaining and dress fabrics at Sheaf Market in Sheffield, but when that was knocked down he moved to Rotherham’s indoor market and increased his wool sales.

The business continued to grow and, in 1970, Ray opened Samantha Fabrics in Wath on Montgomery Square, where he still trades today with his wife Elizabeth Wright (71).

But who is the shop named after, we had to ask? Ray revealed: “We named the shop after our daughter, who went onto study interior design and architecture at university and now works as an architect in Bristol.”