Customer Ledgers from our General Merchant country store in Wicklow

"My family ran a General Merchant shop in Carnew, Co. Wicklow going back to the early 1900's. We sold everything and anything from grass seed to fry pans to tea and rental tvs from the 70's. You can see how Farmers paid some of their bills by barter bringing in eggs or butter and paid off their bills after the harvest or selling livestock. Some years the harvest was bad so they paid the following year. The list was often the same each week with the core staples - sugar, tea, tobacco, flour, rashers and perhaps once a month some biscuits as a special treat. The books go up to the 80's and have so many stories and provide fascinating insights into the village and surrounding area, especially when you go through them with my father who can fill out the details on every line in the books. "