Shops
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.
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, a mechanics, from 1983 Mrs D Everitt, picture framer.
House Number:38
House Number:46
From 1908 Oliver Edward Durham, hardware dealer, from 1929 Douglas B. Tofts, cycle agent and master motor engineer, Cardinals garage,
House Number:54
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
House Number:58
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, 1917 Mrs Ethel Harrington, draper until about 1935, also a corn merchant operated here in 1925 Arthur Benjamin Garnham, 1929, B.H. Rushbrook, Bertram Henry Rushbrook.
House Number:63
House Number:62-64
1874 Joseph Gentry, butcher. 1882 Joseph Gentry, butcher.
House Number:67
House Number:68
House Number:68a
1925 - 1938, Arthur Benjamin Garnham, confectioner.
House Number:70-76
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:82
House Number:83
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
House Number:98
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.
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: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 later, by 1894 it had moved to number 68. 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
House Number:03
House Number:04
House Number:05
House Number:08
House Number:11
House Number:19-23
House Number:24
House Number:25
1945 – 1959 Victory Club. 1959 – 1970 Tabor College overflow, sixth form English & Commercial studies. 1970 – 2005 Abbeyfields Sheltered Housing.