Arnold Bros (est. 1905)

A department store in Blackbury (or possibly Grimethorpe; see below) which became Home and sanctuary to the Nome race.

"Arnold Bros (est. 1905)" became the guarding God of the Nomes, in thanks and gratitude for their deliverance from Outside. The brothers in question were Alderman Frank W Arnold and his brother Arthur Arnold, though the Nomes would never realise this.

The happy Paradise of the Nomes was theatened some ninety years later when wanderers from the Outside led by the prophet Masklin, in defiance of the founding tenets of the Arnold Brosian religion (est 1905), came inside and discovered that the Store was about to meet its Apocalypse. Thus did the Nomes accept expulsion from Paradise and made their sad exodus Outside via the Long Drive to the Quarry, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth...

At the same time, Arnold Bros (est. 1905) did hear the cries for deliverance from his Nome people, and He did put a Star in the Heavens to guide them Home, and in His grace, he sent his only begotten Grandson Richard, 39, under the light of that Star to show His beloved Nomes the way...

Annotation

• In Truckers, Arnold Bros' location isn't directly given, but the Neil Armstrong Shopping Mall, which is confirmed as being in Blackbury in Only You Can Save Mankind, is mentioned as the location for its replacement. Grimethorpe is named, but only as the town in which the stolen lorry is driving at night (and the police force who should be contacted if it's spotted). In Diggers and Wings, however, it is explicitly stated in the Blackbury Gazette that the Store was in Blackbury.