Tributes to lifelong Colne grocer and fishmonger Edwin Allen

Mr Edwin Allen went to Lord Street School, and lived in Duke Street the majority of his life.

He worked for John Scotts in Colne from being a delivery boy to his retirement. He moved into the Peter Birtwistle Trust bungalows at the age of 90 and spent the next six comfortable years living there, boasting to have one of the most picturesque views of the Colne hillsides possible.

Mr Allen died after a short stay in the Grange in Colne, where he was nursed and cared for with compassion.

It is however from serving customers with a joke and a smile at John Scott and Sons that he will be most rembered for. The shop sold fruit and vegetables and was a fishmongers also.

Christmas time was one of the busiest periods for Scotts with the added work-load of selling Christmas trees and plucking and dressing many turkeys. Edwin worked alongside three generations of the Scott family and was indeed often mistaken for one of the family.

The only time he moved out of Colne was to serve in the Royal Ordnance Corps in 1945, when he was 18. He returned where he had left off continuing to work in the shop and then marry and set up his own home in Colne.

It is only fitting that following his cremation he will be scattered on the hillsides of Colne where he once played, walked and then admired from his home.

Edwin’s funeral will take place at Burnley Crematorium on Thursday February 29th at 11-30am.