MORE than 80 years ago the gang of burglars who broke into three shops in Southampton’s Above Bar was front page news in the Daily Echo.

The lead story about the robbers’ haul of approximately £110 went into great detail as, back in 1934, this was considered a sizeable sum as the average yearly wage in the UK was then only £189.

Locally well known shops targeted by the gang were Ridgeways, the tea merchants, the home furniture store of Permain and Company, and Ernest A. Horton, the tobacconists.

“Daring safe-robbers, who raided three shops in Above Bar last night secured a total haul of about £110,” reported the newspaper.

“The greater part of their plunder came from a safe which they dug out of a bed of concrete and brickwork and ripped open with implements.

“During, or after, their strenuous labourers, which must have occupied them several hours, they refreshed themselves with a meal of biscuits.”

It seems £90 was stolen from a safe belonging to Ridgeways, and about £18 in notes and coins was missing at Horton’s while nothing was taken from Permain’s premises.

“The robbery at Horton’s was discovered by a police officer patrolling his beat in Above Bar at about 5am this morning when he tried the front door of the shop and found it unlocked,” said the Daily Echo.

“Some time before the door had been tested and was then locked. On entering the shop the officer found signs that an intruder had been there. The till had been forced and on the counter was a tyre lever apparently been used to force the cash register

When a shop assistant at Ridgeway’s arrived at the shop shortly before 8.30am he found the main mess room at the rear of the premises in a “state of great disorder.”

The Daily Echo said: “A safe, which normally was in-bedded in a wall, in an alcove beside the fire grate, was lying on its side in the centre of the room amid a welter of broken concrete, bricks and plaster.

“A box of sweet biscuits had been removed from the shop into the mess room by the thieves who had made a meal of the biscuits with water. They used jam jars as drinking vessels, but took precautions to prevent fingerprints being left on the glass.

“The missing money was made up of about £20 in silver, £1 in copper and remainder in notes. Some £9 of the money belonged to the staff thrift club and another £1 represented the staff’s weekly contributions to local hospitals.”