IT was known locally as the Old Curiosity Shop . . . a side-street store where Alice Collins sold everything from a thimble to a lawn mower, from safety pins to exotic ballroom gowns encrusted with spangles.

It's closed down now, although there's lingering evidence still of the valuable neighbourhood role that the unique little bazaar played. An odd garment or two are still to be found dangling within the display window, poignant reminders of its legendary proprietress Alice Collins.

Alice died last month at the age of 88, but for four decades her Vincent Street shop was a mecca for the close-knit terraced community living behind the St Helens town hall.

And the flashback photo featured here, kindly supplied by one of her faithful customers, will bring fond memories rushing back for countless folk who shopped at Alice's. She's pictured posing some years ago, alongside hubby Harry and daughter Paula. They also had two sons, Tony and Terry.

A kindly soul, Alice was the most unorthodox of businesswomen. But she'd proved a success right from the day when, in partnership with her mother, she opened up her first shop at Parr when just 18 years old.

Alice would allow those she knew well to pay by instalments (often irregularly) and some trusted customers were often permitted to take goods home on approval. "Come back", she'd say, "when you've made up your mind!"

However, any stranger venturing into Alice's wonderland was required to pay cash on the nail.

Her amazing Aladdin's Cave of a place provided bargain-priced new and second-hand items, all bundled together in glorious chaos, on crowded shelves, dangling from hangers and even strewn across the floor. Candles, pokers, paint and pans, cookers and Communion dresses, drapery and dog bowls, ballroom gowns and bedclothes, spades and shovels, furniture and footwear. The list was endless.

But now, the old curiosity shop stands empty and silent and it's unlikely that we'll ever see a place quite like it again.