We are a family run schoolwear outfitters. The business was originally est in 1939 by Mr A Griffiths selling general menswear. It wasn’t until approx the late 1960’s when Mr and Mrs Cobbold purchased the business that schoolwear was introduced. They also opened at this time ‘The Schoolgirl’ shop at the other end of the village, No 1, The High Street, selling children’s general wear, dance wear and girls schoolwear.
When Mr Cobbold passed away in 1986, my having been associated with the business previously, ran the business for Mrs Cobbold up until 1989 when I purchased and became the proud owner of ‘Griffiths and the Schoolgirl’. Hence the creation of ‘Griffiths and the Schoolgirl by Valentino ltd’ in 1990 when we enlarged Griffiths main store to incorporate the schoolgirl, creating a truly all encumber sum one stop shop catering for all your schoolwear needs for both boys & girls of all ages.
In 2001 due to the great support from our customers we expanded to departmentalise our store by creating a lower ground floor area.
This enabled us to create our departments for men’s formalwear – casualwear – workwear (see our link page) – dancewear – children’s fashionwear – brownies, cubs etc not to mention being able to devote one complete level to schoolwear alone.
Due to this we were able to offer a more varied selection of manufacturers to fulfil ever increasing appetite for value for money for mum and fashion wise kids.
In 2008 again with the continuous appreciation of our customers as an added comfort we were able to provide our coffee bar – one of the items on our customer wish list – Valentino’s Coffee Juice Bar provides a wide variety of refreshments for all the family, from great coffee, delicious homemade Panini’s, pastries to the award winning Italian ice creams. See our link page.
We were also proud to be able to provide yet another item from our customer’s wish list – a wheelchair entrance into the store via the coffee bar including toilet facilities for baby changing and wheelchairs.
New to us in 2010 is our on line order service. Click on our link and browse through our extensive range of schoolwear, brownies, cubs etc. Alternatively pop in for a coffee and browse in store. Free parking on our own forecourt directly outside the store, alternatively there are two free car parks only minutes away from us.
Please feel free to contact us at any time if you need any help, advice or if you feel there is some other service we can provide, as we always strive to address our customers need.

Mr & Mrs Valentino
Joint Directors