retail founded 1837 headquarters great yarmouth norfolk england number of employees 400 website http www.palmerstores.com palmers department store is an independent and family run department store located in great yarmouth norfolk . the company boasts that it is the longest established independent department store in the country . 1 history edit palmers can trace its history back to june 1837 2 when garwood burton palmer opened a small linens and drapery shop in great yarmouth market place . 3 in 1844 his younger brother nathaniel palmer joined the business . 4 in 1888 when garwood palmer died at the age of 73 the business transferred into the hands of nathaniel palmer s sons and the business became known as palmer brothers . 5 the shop was the first building in great yarmouth to be illuminated by electricity in the town in 1902 . 6 palmers has survived two major fires and bomb damage . palmers is still owned and run by descendants of the store s original founder . 7 the company expanded in the 1990s and 2000s taking on stores in bury st edmunds dereham and lowestoft . 8 it has previously had a branch in red lion street norwich . 9 in 2012 a blue plaque was placed outside the conservative club of gorleston by the great yarmouth local history and archaeological society to commemorate the former home of the founder garwood burton palmer . 10 in 2014 the dereham store was sold to basil todd and closed in march 2015 . 11 references edit http www.palmerstores.com about palmers http www.palmerstores.com stores great yarmouth palmers great yarmouth . 2011 . retrieved 18 november 2011 . http www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk news founder of palmers department store remembered with blue plaque 1 1349437 http www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk news founder of palmers department store remembered with blue plaque 1 1349437 palmers department store 1902 . 2011 . retrieved 18 november 2011 . great yarmouth store palmers keeps it in the family with online expansion . 2011 . retrieved 18 november 2011 . norfolk department store boss to take a step back . 2011 . retrieved 18 november 2011 . george plunkett pictures . retrieved 31 october 2014 . http www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk news founder of palmers department store remembered with blue plaque 1 1349437 from palmers to chattels work starts on dereham s new department store dereham times p. 23 april 2015 . retrieved 15 may 2015 . external links edit palmers department store retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title palmers department store & oldid 662551137 categories department stores of the united kingdomcompanies established in 1837companies based in norfolkgreat yarmouth navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages nederlands edit links this page was last modified on 16 may 2015 at 06 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view