David and Robert Allen started their business in Poyntzpass in1892. They traded from the premises next to the Petty Sessions building at the top of railway Street where it meets The Square. They styled themselves as General Merchants, and their business as “The Peoples’ (sic) Providers” and “The Forward House”.
They sold groceries, including own-brand tea, fancy goods, jewellery, furniture, bicycles, agricultural and horticultural seeds, ‘cuffs and collars’, patent medicines, …. the list seems endless. They were also both florists and undertakers.
They made innovative and extensive use of advertising in the local press. They also entered horticultural competitions, not under their individual names but as Allen Brothers, to promote their brand and business.
The funeral business was still in operation in the early 1940s.