Sorry for waking up a very old-thread - over 10 years too late, but Sandbrook and Dawe's was quite the most amazing shop in Pontypool, or anywhere else that I've ever known. It was somewhere that stocked all the things you couldn't get anywhere else, whilst also somehow being a relic from a bygone age.
The staff were always friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. And always dressed in beige great-coats, I recall. I recall the shop was often cold and damp, and yet the welcome was always warm - and also there were paraffin heaters all around the store. I still remember the musty smell of the place and the bare wooden boards on the floor.
There was clearly a lot of camaraderie amongst the staff. It had a family atmosphere.
But if you wanted screws or nails or hammers, sink plugs or hot water-bottle stoppers, tea-pots, plates, a frying pan or a colander, a fire grate or a poker, light bulbs, cheese graters, keys cut, wicks for oil lamps, liquid paraffin, garden spades or shovels, seeds and fertilizer, or salt to put down on the ground when it was icey - or many other things: Sandbook and Dawe's was the place where you went.
It was a unique store, and Pontypool died more than a little when they closed:
https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/43846
