IN a career spanning 40 years, Tommy Ball rose from a pram-pushing rag-and-bone man to head of a nationally-known business.

Mr Ball, who was born in Blackburn in 1925, started off his business with just a £5 note and a pile of second-hand clothes.

In 1954 he stood for hours in the pouring rain wearing only a vest, trousers and a pair of sandals hoping to get a stall on Blackburn's outside market.

He was soaking wet and shivering, and when the stall allocation closed without him, he had to push his pramload of second-hand clothes back home to Boxwood Street.

He was eventually granted an allocation on the market, and, from there, developed the business to open a flagship shoe warehouse that coachloads of people from throughout the north would visit on a daytrip to Blackburn.

In 1970, the popularity of the newly-opened warehouse on Hart Street in Blackburn caused traffic mayhem when shoppers driving to the store to look for footwear bargains caused traffic problems.

A pioneer of Sunday trading, Mr Ball clashed bitterly with the local authority over their upholding of Sunday trading laws.

In 1982 Mr Ball said he was prepared to go to jail over plans to open on Easter Sunday.

He told Blackburn Council: "You'll have to jail me to stop me."

He opened his warehouse as a private club on Sundays, charging customers 20p to enter.

This money eventually totalled £18,000 and was used to buy a kidney dialysis machine.

Mr Ball suffered from poor health from the 1970s.

In 1977 he was rushed to Blackburn Infirmary's intensive care unit after a heart attack at his home in Clayton-le-Dale.

In 1986 he sold his business on doctor's orders for an undisclosed sum.

He handed over the Hart Street warehouse to Mr Ball's former joint managing directors, Graham Threlfall and Joan Piper.

On his retirement, he said: "I don't bear malice against any councillor or officer because they were only doing what they thought was right on Sunday trading."

He paid tribute to the people of Blackburn and the surrounding areas, saying: "They made me: they are the salt of the earth."

  • If you would like to post your tributes to Tommy Ball or condolences to his family, please click on the link below.