SHOPPING over 200 years was the title of last month's talk given by Bernard Mills, who started with Kays as a management trainee in 1973 and is now shairman and founder of Kay's Heritage Group.

With the aid of excellent slides, he took us from John Skarratt's shop in the 1790s through the history of what developed into the Kays mail order catalogue firm.

Started in 1890 by a jeweller's assistant, William K Kay, it was based in Foregate Street, Worcester, sold household wares but no fashion, was strictly cash with order and operated a quick service by carrier thanks to the nearby railway station.

William bought machinery to manufacture clocks and timepieces and other items for his catalogue, started employing commercial travellers to expand his business. He secured contracts to supply clocks to the Great Western Railway, some of which are still in use today, notably the clock on platform 1 at Paddington. In 1907 he built a large factory in Worcester at 23 The Tything. Three years later his "modern" mail order business was established, giving credit with repayments over 20 weeks. Fashion items were introduced, illustrated for the first time by catalogue pictures.

William Kay died in 1920, by which time he was employing 250 girls in the offices, all single girls, because as soon as a girl got married she had to leave. Bernard Mills personally knew many of those ladies and some survive still, now in their late 90s. Much has changed down the years - the 1937 purchase of Kays by Great Universal Stores, factory fires, austerity clothing in wartime, railway strikes and the creation of White Arrow Express to deliver goods by road.

By the 1970s, 27,000 people were working for Kays, with so many warehouses open that nobody in England lived more than 40 miles from one.

And every year, bigger catalogues. Bernard has 120 years of catalogues in his collection, a fascinating picture of fashion down the years and a snapshot of British life shown by catalogue.

The next meeting of the society will be on March 31 when Ray Aspden will give a slide show entitled Bronze Age Palaces of Syria.