The word and indeed the once commonplace shops and outlets are almost extinct having been driven to that stage by the huge DIY Superstores.
In my childhood, in the 1960's and even into the 1970's an adult accompanied trip to the local Ironmongers was something to look forward to.
Every small town will have had a long established trader in all manner of tools, fixings, domestic consumables, gardening and general goods and a helpful and informed proprietor or staff ( always dressed in light brown shop keepers coats) to direct you to the relevant section in the shop or give sound advice on what items would be required for any project however ambitious or impractical.
It is the very nature of an ironmongers to carry a huge amount of stock to meet a wide range of demands. A characteristic of our backstreet shop was a seemingly chaotic floor to ceiling stacking system.
I was always a bit apprehensive to try to extract anything from the shelves and precarious towers in case that particular item was the only thing tying it all together, a bit like an oversized Jenga game.
Everything would however have its place and could be easily located by the staff.
Pricing on the goods could be a bit haphazard but that was not important where a lot of the hardware items were sold loose such as nails, screws, washers, jubilee clips and picture hooks or even by weight. That was ideal for a household repair or renewal where the exact number of fixings was known whereas the massive warehouse based DIY Stores sell you a blister pack containing multiple and therefore surplus nails or similar and at a price to match.
I had cause to pop into my local Ironmongers today to purchase just four screws to refix the door front to the integrated dishwasher.
It is a small shop at the quieter end of an otherwise busy suburban street. In the window the displayed goods are heavily faded from years of exposure to the sun giving the impression of another, less hurried and urgent era where constancy always won out over fashions and trends.
Entering the cluttered sales area is as if to time travel and the distinctive smell of oils, paints and weedkiller are amongst some of the most relaxing that I know even though they are a precursor to hard work and, with my poor aptitude in any basic skills, a lot of stress and frustration.
Although I had a specific acquisition in mind I intentionally lingered in the narrow footway which formed a strictly one-way system of negotiation. The product lines for sale covered every conceivable requirement for modern living in spite of the dated appearance of the shop window display.
That was with one striking and quite shocking exception.
Amongst the insecticides and treatments to suppress weeds and intrusive vegetation, the curse of patios and brick pavers, I noticed a thin canister announcing its contents as a remedy for Bed Bugs.
I am, as you will gather, a regular visitor to Ironmongers but in all of my years I can honestly say that I have never seen a Bed Bug treatment on offer.
It is an insect of a bygone age and even visualising the thing conjurs up a black and white image to my mind.
I am aware of the affect that climate change has had on the migration and new habitats of certain insect populations. In the UK we have recently had cases of infestation from species that normally shirk at a typical North European coldness and perhaps the Bed Bug has returned to a distant genetic memory of its Victorian and early environment with the perceptible rise in average temperatures, milder winters and less rainfall. It appears that I am wrong.
The Bed Bug or "Cimex Lectularius" has not been driven away or abandoned mankind and that has been the case for millenia. They have always accompanied humans from an early cave based existence to long migrations across the globe following the retreat of the Ice Age.
It remains a very singular ambition of the small, lentil shaped insect to survive and breed by targeting humans and sucking the blood through small, irritating bites. They can be up to 5mm in size and visible to the naked eye. Their perceived absence from modern lifestyles has been a brief hiatus in order to build up their resistance to insecticides. Scientific studies do show that they have developed a thicker skin by way of an exoskeleton to improve survival and breeding.
The generation which includes our parents and grandparents will no doubt be horrified at the thought of a Bed Bug infestation. It will represent to them very much of a throwback to their own childhoods where headlice and cockroaches were something never to be acknowledged because of the social stigma that they engendered.
In my own early years I can clearly recall the embarrassment of my Mother when Nitty-Nora as the head lice nurse was known came a calling to the house.
"Cimex Lectularius" is, it seems, back with a vengeance.
They have made the cracks and crevices in and around our beds their new domain. Our body heat and CO2 output signal feeding time and they can rapidly crawl over the ground to get to the source, that being you and me.
We may attribute those red skin blemishes and itchy bumps to the common scapegoat of the mosquito but we are in denial.
An insect that has preyed on humans since the dawn of time is once again cosying up and looking forward to a resurgence and perhaps a renewal of status as a modern plague.
Best advice ?
Just remember the nursery rhyme from your childhood along the lines of "nighty nighty, sleep tight..."
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