T H Goode: Tributes paid to famous Sheffield shopkeeper whose Abbeydale Road store was an 'Aladdin's cave'

Thomas Hezekiah Goode ran his store, T H Goode, on Abbeydale Road, Nether Edge, for nearly 40 years from 1982 until 2020.

It specialised in architectural salvage and antique furniture, but you could find almost anything there, from a Victorian tiled fireplace to a porcelain enamelled bath, and it was a treasure trove for people carrying out house renovations.

The family firm is still operating from its new base in Southend Road, Manor, now run by his daughter Shirley Mason, who had taken over the day-to-day business in recent years, though Thomas never officially retired.

Thomas, known as Tommy, died peacefully in his sleep on January 22, aged 92.

His daughter Shirley told how he was born in Jamaica and came to England in his 20s as part of the Windrush generation.

He initially lived in Nottingham, working on the railways, before settling in Sheffield, where he worked for many years for the wire manufacturer Hemmings & Co.

Tommy opened store after having a dream

Shirley told how her dad opened his eponymous Abbeydale Road store after having a dream.

She said: “He went to an estate agent the next day and told them about his dream, and they said there was a shop on Abbeydale Road coming up for rent so he went to see it and told them ‘this is the one I’ve been dreaming about’.”

Tommy had left school when he was around 12 and never fully learned to read or write, but he was able to build a successful business thanks to what Shirley described as his encyclopaedic memory.

She said you could read him a contract and he’d be able to quote any clause back at you, but most extraordinary was his ability to immediately locate any item in his sprawling store.

‘Whatever you wanted my dad probably had it’

“It was a proper Aladdin’s cave. Whatever you wanted, however obscure, my dad probably had it, and if he didn’t then he knew where you could get it from,” explained Shirley.

“There were about 20 rooms spread over four floors, and a big warehouse round the back. But if you asked him where anything was he’d tell you ‘it’s in this room, on the right, underneath such and such an object’.”

Tommy met his wife Betty at a party in Sheffield in the late 50s and they got engaged soon after but it took them until December 2011, when they were both in their early 80s, to finally tie the knot.

Betty had three children from her first marriage - Sandra, Ian, who has sadly passed away, and Janet - and she and Thomas had their only child, Shirley, in 1962.

Shirley’s daughter Tabatha had a son, Alfred, in 2023, and Shirley said Tommy’s great-grandson was the ‘apple of my dad’s eye’.

Shirley told how Tommy loved his ‘ready made family’, with whom he lived first in Manor, then Jordanthorpe and finally Hillsborough.

Betty, who sadly died in 2023, initially worked in the shop with Tommy before Shirley and later her husband Richard joined him there.

Shirley told how in the summer months her dad could be found sitting at the shop front, surrounded by pine blanket boxes, bookcases and other items. In the winter, he would be seated in his ‘office’, a small, cosy space in the middle of the shop, where he was ‘more often than not asleep’.

The first room featured shelves stacked with gorgeous antique glass, ceramics and other goods which were Tommy’s most prized possessions. They never came to market no matter how many enquiries were made or offers put forward.

‘Dad loved meeting customers’

Tommy loved spending time with Betty and the family, and he was a gifted snooker player too, but outside of the family, the shop was his greatest passion.

“It was his pride and joy, and he loved working there,” she said.

“He loved meeting customers, renovating furniture and going round people’s houses, but I think most of all Dad, who was a great storyteller, loved having a captive audience.”

Shirley told how her father had ‘boundless energy’ and always wanted to help people help themselves.

“He was a firm believer in giving people the tools to help themselves, rather than charity,” she explained.

“He would often give people loans to help them set themselves up. He had no intention of asking for the money back but he always said it was a loan.”

“Dad was definitely one of Sheffield’s characters. He was a great father and a lovely man, who was fiercely loyal to his friends. I look back and see a life well-lived.

“He came over here with nothing and achieved everything he wanted to but he remained quite a humble person.

“He looked like he didn’t have two pennies to rub together even though he’d actually done pretty well for himself.”

Many people have paid tribute to Tommy and recalled how they loved talking to him while rummaging around his shop.

One person called him ‘a legend and a lovely man’, another remembered him as a ‘fine chap’, and a third described him as ‘an Abbeydale Road legend, institution and absolute gent of the old school’.

Shirley said: “I’d like the people who came to my dad’s shop to know that it was them who made his life so enjoyable.

“He didn’t think of it as work. He just loved interacting with the customers, telling them his stories and listening to theirs.”

Mr Goode’s family have issued an open invitation to his funeral, interment and wake.

The funeral will take place on Monday, March 3, at 12.30pm, at Hillsborough Trinity Methodist Church, on Middlewood Road (corner of Lennox Road), Hillsborough S6 4HE.

The interment will take place at 2.30pm at Crookes Cemetery, on Headland Road S10 5FY

The wake will be held from 3pm to 6.30pm at Crookes Social Club, on Mulehead Road S10 1TD.

Mr Goode’s family have asked for donations to St Luke’s Hospice in lieu of flowers.

Donations can be made online at www.peacefuneral.co.uk/tributes-donations or on the day of the funeral there will be a donations box available at the exit of the chapel.