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Walk down Bradford Street and you see the effects of the late 20th century supermarket. There are many old shop fronts, now no longer trading, but what did they sell?
Well, there were butchers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, general stores, the post office, hardware shops, the hairdresser and the greengrocer.
Here is our best guess based on trade directories and census returns of where you would find your provisions.
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House Number: 10
A bakery from before 1839 until 1937. Bakers included Charles Freeborn, Henry Bearman, George Edmund Coppin, William Root and Edward Harry Boiley who then transferred his business to No. 15 in 1937.
House Number: 15
1937, Edward Harry Boiley, baker, 1939, Norris W Boiley, baker & confectioner until 1973, then it sold reproduction furniture for while followed by health foods and then a mechanics selling car spares, from 1983 Mrs D Everitt, picture framer until 2015.
House Number: 38
1851, Ann Player, seller of tea, coffee and fancy articles, 1901 to 1929 Samuel William Francis, furniture dealer. 1933 Arthur & Mrs Jesse Lawrence, shop keepers. 1939 Lilias Sperrin, general shopkeeper.
House Number: 46 Cardinals
From 1908 Oliver Edward Durham, hardware dealer, from 1929 Douglas B. Tofts, cycle agent and master motor engineer, Cardinals garage until 1975.
House Number: 54
1848 Crispin Curry, shopkeeper. 1874 James Livermore, plumber. 1908 to 1912 William Scott, tailor.
House Number: 56
1839 Wm. Henry Philips, butcher. 1841 Hannah Phillips, butcher, 1848 George Phillips, butcher & dealer in cattle, 1855 Mrs Sarah Phillips, butcher, 1908 George B. Phillips, butcher, 1912 Frank Phillips, butcher until sometime after 1939. Unknown date, possibly 1984, C. Richardson (Braintree) Ltd wholesale & Retail Butchers.
House Number: 56a
1933 Arthur Robert Geary. Fishmonger.
House Number: 58
1902 Edward Morris, fruiterer. 1908 Percy Leonard Morris, fruiterer, market gardener & greengrocer until sometime after 1939. In the 1970’s a general shop.
House Number: 61
1839 George Harrison, Grocer and tea dealer until about 1875, 1881 Arthur Brown, Grocer, 1891 William Mason, Grocer, 1901, William E Mason, Grocer, 1908 Mrs Richard Knights, grocer to 1912, then Frederick Thompson grocer until after 1920, from 1917 Mrs Ethel Harrington, draper until about 1935, also a corn merchant operated here from 1925 first Arthur Benjamin Garnham to 1929, then Bertram Henry Rushbrook until after 1933. From after World War 2 it was a pet food store until sometime in the 1970s. Alongside pet food it also sold DIY products and then with a change of ownership it became an upholsterer’s until the 1990s and then it was a video rental shop for a few years until a change of use to domestic premises in 1999.
House Number: 63
A bakers and confectioners for over 100 yrs. 1839 Joseph Joscelyne, baker. 1841 John Beaumont, baker 1848 Thomas Lewis, baker and George Palmer, confectioner. 1851 George Palmer, baker & confectioner, until after 1882 George Palmer, baker. 1891 Harry Bearman, baker & confectioner, 1912 H. Bearman & Sons, bakers, 1925 Dove Bros., bakers. 1933 Herbert Chas. Bearman, baker. 1939 Percival Legg, Master Baker & Pastry Cook until after 1976.
Site of House Number: 62-64
1874 Joseph Gentry, butcher. 1882 Joseph Gentry, butcher.
House Number: 65
1848 Lister Smith, glass, china & dealers, 1855 John G. Armfield haberdasher & china dealer. 1861 Charles Oliver, greengrocer, 1871 census uninhabited, 1881 Walter Walford, market gardener and seedsman until after 1917.
House Number: 67
1871 George Sewell, boot & shoe maker until after 1894, 1908 until after 1914 Frederick H. Fenn, hairdresser.
House Number: 68
The two shop fronts date to sometime after the first World War and before 1925 when the Post Office relocated here. As with many small post offices other businesses ran alongside; 1925, Mrs. C. Holmes, post office and shopkeeper until 1938 and Arthur Benjamin Garnham, Confectioner, relocated here from the site of the tenement at 115- 125 before 1925. Mr Garnham ran his business until 1942. He was succeeded by the Jacksons, who, in turn were succeeded by Ginger and Val Berry. In 1925 the other shop was occupied by Sween Duncan McQueen, chemist, then from 1929 John M. Cameron MPS chemist, from 1933 to 1939 John Watkin Stephens was the Pharmacist & sub-postmaster for a while. The post office closed about 2003.
House Number: Site of 70-76
Former Swan Inn cottages, 1839 Sophia Frost and Elizabeth Martha Sewell, straw hat makers. Isaac Tyler, Collector for Provident Soc. Isaac Sewell, boot & shoe maker. 1848 until after 1855 Benjamin Frost saddler, 1902 William Strutt, boot & shoe maker until after 1914. 1908 Mrs Mary Millbank, shopkeeper, Correy Poulter boot maker, George Quy, shopkeeper, 1912 Correy Poulter, greengrocer.
House Number: 75
1839 William King, boot and shoe maker. 1848 - 1855 Isaac Sewell, boot & shoe maker. Receiver for the post office. 1871 Mary Amey Post Office Keeper, 1874 Thomas Passfield shoemaker and receiving office for post. Christopher Amey, shopkeeper. 1908 - 1911 David Boyton, fish monger, 1917 - 1937 William Scott, tailor.
House Number: 78
1929 Harold Voller, grocer, 78. 1933 – 1937 Chas. Gordon Peaston, boot repairer.
House Number: 82
1929 - 1933 Albt. Fredk. Geary, draper.
House Number: 83
1839 until after 1851Anthony Tyler, baker, 1871, Mary Robson, general shopkeeper, 1874 Joseph Robson, fruiterer.
House Number: 92
1839, John Medcalf, butcher, corn factor & dealer, 1848 John Medcalf, pork butcher. James Perry butcher. 1851 – 1891 James Perry, master butcher and farmer, 1894 William Benham, butcher. Ernest E. Warmoll butcher, 1902 William Benham & sons, butcher. Ernest E. Warmoll butcher. 1908 - 1930 William Benham & Sons, (his son was killed in the First World War) 1931 – 1939 Horace Alfred Boat, butcher. The Boats were here in 1951 but died in Suffolk in 1969/70. The business was then in the hands of the J.R. Sergent and later R.L. Gallop up to 1997.
House Number: 94
1839 Mary Ann Clay, Perfumers & hair cutter. 1841 George Clay, hairdresser, 1851, Thomas Pasfield, shoemaker, master.
House Number: 98
1841 - 1875 Thos. Lewis, baker, 1881 – after 1917, Sarah Everard, baker, 1925 - 1938 Everard Bros. Bakers.
House Number: 102
1839 – 1865 Thomas and Sarah Wittam, grocer and tea dealer, 1871 Emily Peters, general shopkeeper, 1874 Henry Peters, shopkeeper. 1882 – 1905 Mary Ann Eve grocers shop, 1894 – 1902 Benjamin Eve, painter. 1908 - 1920 Frederick Thompson, grocer. 1929 Frederick M. Edwards, grocer, 1933 – 1939 Harold Voller, Grocer.
House Number: 104
1839 – 1865 Thomas and Sarah Wittam, grocer and tea dealer, 1871 Emily Peters, general shopkeeper, 1874 Henry Peters, shopkeeper. 1882 – 1905 Mary Ann Eve grocers shop, 1894 – 1902 Benjamin Eve, painter. 1908 - 1920 Frederick Thompson, grocer. 1929 Frederick M. Edwards, grocer, 1933 – 1939 Harold Voller, Grocer.
House Number: 104
1912 – after 1933 Greene King & Sons Ltd, stores. Later Peatling and Cawdron’s off-licence business became agents to Greene King & Sons and in 1934 joined forces with the company. They had ceased trading here before 2002.
House Number: Site of 115-125
Formerly a row of cottages stood on the site of 115 – 125. The shop premises on the site of 115 – 117 was first a tailors and later a bootmakers. The post office relocated here about 1874 from no. 75 and was run by Mrs Sarah Pasfield, shoe maker & post office. 1908 Frederick William Pilgrem, shopkeeper & post office, 1912 George Arthur Wallis, photographer, post office. 1914 Charles Henry Taylor, shopkeeper & post office. 1917 Peter Holmes, shopkeeper & post office.
At the other end of the row on the site of 125 in 1925 Bertie Thomas Yeulett, butcher. 1841,John Pyman Sen, John Pyman and John Pyman Jnr, tailors, 1848 - 1857 John Pyman, tailor, 1861 – after 1901 Thomas Passfield Shoemaker, his wife Sarah ran the post office.
After the First World War the old tenement was replaced by numbers 115-125.
House Number: 03
1925 Cyril Arthur Jepp, carpenter, 1929 Cyril Arthur Jepp, carpenter.
House Number: 04
1855 John Harrison & Thomas Taylor, surgeons. 1874 Thomas Taylor, Surgeon. 1882 Thomas Taylor, Surgeon.
House Number: 05
1839 – 1874 John Fenno Shearcroft, printer (stationery/book shop in Braintree).
House Number: 08
1912 – 1917 Miss Susan Melbourne, dress maker.
House Number: 11
1839 - 1850 Geo. Cook Holmested, Surgeon. 1855 Harrison & Holmested, surgeons.
House Number: 18
1882, Mrs Caroline Langden, Straw hat cleaner.
House Number: 19-23
1874 – 1885 Stephen Adams, carpenter. 1908 – 1914 George Ford Green, carpenter, 1929 – 1937 Ernest Riley, carman, at no., 19. 1845- 1865 William (Billy) Read a dwarf watchmaker lived and worked in the cottages in Passfields yard behind this property.
House Number: 24
1855 John Holmes & William Holmes, solicitors. 1939 Ann Walsh, hand embroideress.
House Number: 25
1945 – 1959 Victory Club. 1959 – 1970 Tabor College overflow, sixth form English & Commercial studies. 1970 – 2005 Abbeyfields Sheltered Housing.
House Number: 31
1915 – 1950 a Children’s Home. 1961 Friars Hotel, 1967 The Old Court Hotel until about 2005. 202 a change of use to Private Dwelling.
House Number: 36
1839 – 1855 Thomas Wood, shoe maker & leather cutter.