Cedric Thwaite

Cedric Thwaite was the first owner of the Corner Shop.

Cedric had been running a pawn business from his front room for ten years when he bought the new shop in for the bargain price of £35 in 1902. He quickly discovered that he was set apart from his neighbours because of his profession and his side job as lay preacher. He was a keen drinker but was exluded at the Rover's Return as his presence made people feel uncomfortable. He was removed from the preaching list when news of his drinking problem became public, and not - as the gossips claimed - because of his alleged affair with Gladys Arkwright.

Cedric feared he'd never marry but in 1910 he met Lottie Hefner, a young German woman, at a Blackpool chapel. They fell in love, beginning by conversing in French, a language they shared. Marrying a foreigner only alienated Cedric from his neighbours further but the Thwaites planned to start a family. With the declaration of war against Germany, everything changed; in October 1914, a lynch mob smashed its way into the shop and Cedric and Lottie were both beaten. The police broke up the attack but Lottie couldn't remain in Coronation Street and was imprisoned at the Isle of Man until the war was over. Cedric too left the Street, selling the shop to Tommy Foyle and moving to his brother's in Newcastle.


 * Cedric first appeared in Daran Little and Bill Hill's "Weatherfield Life", published in 1992. Other information is derived from Little's follow-up book, "Around the Coronation Street Houses".