The original Hatton's was just down the road from me as a child. My parents had a couple of shops a few hundred yards away at 236-8 Smithdown and there was Hatton's at 180!
I used to go into the original shop quite a lot until I was in my mid teens. Was quite an Aladdin's cave, had many a Christmas and birthday present bought for me there, plus most of my pocket money was spent there too.
However, an odd incident occurred which led to me changing my allegiances model shop wise.
On holiday with my parents to Cornwall and Devon I used to get them to take to me to Peco. On one occasion there was some N gauge accessory from Arnold that I wanted which Peco didn't have in stock but said they could send to my local dealer which was of course Hatton's.
Returning home I told Norman Hatton that Peco would be be sending something through and he told me he would let me know.
Despite repeated requests each time I visited Hatton's the item never appeared.
However, when I visited Peco again I asked what happened. They claimed to have sent it but Mr Hatton sent it back!
Thus after that I switched my support to the now defunct City Models in Liverpool City Centre from where I bought all my future model railway equipment until I gave up active railway modelling in the mid 1990s.
However, I was somewhat shocked to read of the demise of Hatton's it was something of an institution. I had been toying with getting back into model railways now that I have retired and would probably have ended up being a customer once again as their new location at Widnes was not that far away.
Are there any model railway shops on Merseyside now?
hattons.co.uk
i remember paying a visit one day to find out they closed the shop, & moved to a warehouse in Widnes. 
