Before paper and then plastic carrier bags were widely used in shops, purchases were wrapped in brown paper and string - including meat and cheese - and customers came with their own shopping bag. A ball of string was always on or near the shop counter. This string container came from Bodman's shop, in Marshfield, and was in use in the 1920s - a holder like this stopped the string getting tangled. Mr Trull, who ran a haberdasher's shop on Christmas Steps, was still wrapping purchases with paper and string in the 1970s.