H Flook Newport Mon One Shilling Token

H Flook 1/- Newport Mon.

A shilling token for Flook's fruit and fish business situated in Newport Market.

(Cox 208. There was also a 6D version - Cox 2153.)

If you have any Newport tokens for sale please contact us.

H. Flook Ltd tokens were given to customers who returned empty fruit & veg containers, particularly the banana flats. These flats were long solid wood boxes, about a yard long, with rope handles and the company name burnt into the wood.
Henry Flook came to Newport from Bristol where the family had traded in fruit, veg and fish for nearly 200 years prior to this.
In 1860 Henry set up business in Cross Street in Pill. Newport centred around the docks at that time. When the tunnels were cut under Baneswell / Stow Hill the new railway station opened at it`s current site. In 1864 the business moved to Market Street to be near the new rail head. The indoor market was yet to be built. In upper dock street were the horse traders, known locally as "the forty thieves", your equivalent to "dodgy 2nd hand car dealers".
H.Flook Ltd were the first to import bananas into South Wales. They had their own gas powered ripening rooms, with a dedicated man to carefully watch over the "new exotic" fruit.
Flook`s, as they were known, traded in fruit & veg wholesale, fish wholesale & retail in Market Street for 110 years before moving to just retail in Upper Dock Street and finally finished in Usk in 1988. Four generations of father and son working alongside each other, passing on stories about long forgotten people and places.

By Nigel Flook