Who is Kitty Brown? This is a question that we have often been asked. The answer is that, at least as far as our shop is concerned, there has never been anyone called Kitty Brown. So, why is the shop called Kitty Brown Boutique?
The business was started in 2006 by Caroline and her friend Jenny and was called Town and Country Fashions. The shop was originally on Carnforth railway station where The Snug micro pub is today. Jenny wanted to start her own line of jewellery and wanted a name for it. The name Kitty Brown was decided on.
Wait! That doesn't answer the question at all!
True, let us explain further.
Jenny used to be a nurse and Caroline and Jenny met working at Great Universal Stores in Bolton. Caroline was a department manager and Jenny was the occupational nurse. Before this time, Jenny worked in hospitals and at one, nurses were forbidden from having cups of tea when they were working on a ward. Sometimes the nurses would disobey this and one would go off and make tea and locate it in a cupboard on the ward. They would then communicate to their colleagues that the tea was ready by telling them that 'Mrs Brown is on the ward.'
So why Kitty? Caroline and Jenny simply thought it was a nice name and liked the sound of the names together. Later they decided that Town and Country Fashions sounded a bit formal and possibly gave an impression of a shop selling country wear so renamed the entire shop Kitty Brown Boutique.
Jenny retired four years ago and has gone to live in Yorkshire but is still good friends with Caroline.
So the name has its roots in a code for announcing the presence of secret cups of tea in a 1970s hospital and lives on in the name Carnforth shop.
As an aside, there was an American called Catherine (Kitty) Brown. Born in 1899 she died in 1990 and was blues singer who also went under the names of Bessie Williams, Jane White, Dixie Gray, Rosa Green and Mazie Leroy. She recorded between the mid 1920s and mid 1930s. Our shop was named before we knew of this lady and her musical career.
