A miscellany of shops, shopkeepers or traders.
When is a shop a shop?
- Is a craft or trades man or woman who sells his time and skill a shopkeeper?
- Is an animal breeder a retailer?
- Does a shop need to be a purpose built building?
Whilst some shops or retail outlets survived through more than one generation of retailer others were shorter lived. Many would have been nearer the border with Stowmarket so after the 1939 boundary change no longer part of the history of Stowupland. Some were associated with the brewing and sale of alcohol, some with crafts or trades. Very little is known about many of them, but if we have a name they will be listed here in the hope that more detail will be added later.
In the 20th century the motor car, petrol pumps and engineering arrived in Stowupland
Mobile retailers
Milk Rounds – Fred Cubbitt (son of Walter) had a milk round (In 1981 Fred and his wife Lucy lived at Crown Farm Bugalow along Church Road).
-The Allard family delivered milk around Stowupland homes from their herd of dairy cows of Walnut Tree Farm, during the first half of the 20th century.
This extract from the Rev Brame’s unpublished manuscript ‘As I Remember It’ gives an interesting glimpse into home-delivery services of the early 1920s. His mother would supplement her requirements with a cycle trip down to Stowmarket on a Saturday for market day.
The Apple Caravan
In 1965 Bury Free Press reported on concerns expressed by Stowupland councilors that a caravan near Stowupland’s garage was a potential traffic hazard, and as it had been in situ for 3 years without planning permission then it would have to go.
In January 1983 the parish council approved an application for “the retention of use of land for a stationary caravan to be used for the sale of fruit and veg,” but requested “the van to be painted and the site cleaned up.”
In 2023 it is still in place selling seasonal fruits adjacent to the new Co-op and known by some as Berridge’s Bus.
Fish and Chips. In the 1940s Stowupland had 2 fish and chip shops; Mr Alf Buckle‘s and Mr Seaman‘s.
The shop owned by Mr Buckle is still going strong. It was built in a converted barn. In 1983 the proprietor was R. Lewis. In 2022/3 there have been a few changes of ownership as rising fuel costs and fish prices have caused ‘fish and chips’ to no longer be a cheap take away meal.
The shop owned by Mr Seaman was on the site of the Old Mill that stood on the Green, it did not last long and Mr Seaman possibly moved to Stowmarket.
Hair dressers – 1940 Mr Abram Calthorpe from a shed behind his cottage (4 Laburnum Cottages) on the Back Green. Ex-local resident Albert Cooper remembered it was 6d for a short back and sides. (Telstar, June 2010)
Cyril Rogers, Saxham Street had a license to sell tobacco and cigarettes. (Kelly’s 1937), but according to Ena Carter’s notes he did not have a shop and the census gives his occupation as an agricultural worker. Albert Cooper remembered Mrs Rogers selling ‘soft drinks and crisps at her front door’. (Telstar, June 2010)
Apparently in the 1940’s ‘Meachams and Hopgoods from Stowmarekt came to the village one day each week. They sold hardware, cleaning items, and paraffin oil from their vans.’ Albert Cooper added he lived on Church Road and did not have electricity laid on till 1949.
Bertie Todd , a tobacconist on the Green in the 1920’s and 30’s Kelly 1937)
Butchers, usually Pork
1898 William Botting was a butcher who was made bankrupt.
William Peart was a pork butcher or grocer along Columbyne Road in the 1900’s , he maybe associated with the shop that later became M&M, but that is unsure.
Kellys 1912 & 16, Wm Edward Peart was named as a pork butcher
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Samuel Smith, in the 1900’s is named as a shop keeper and a blacksmith on Saxham Street
Kellys 1891/2: Elijah Burrows was a shop keeper on Saxham Street 9Whites Directory)
:William Davey is named as a shop keeper
The Wilden family had a wheelwrights’s shop at Orchard Farm and Mill House, Mill Street in 1874
Joseph Shulver was named as a shop keeper in 1869 (Post Office Directory)
Francis Webb, in 1869 was a hop, corn, seed and coal merchant.
J. Baker was an Inn Keeper in Stowupland who according to Bells Weekly Messenger was made bankrupt in 1868
1865 (Kellys) Henry Hammond, shopkeeper
1885 (Whites): Elizabeth Moore, carpenter, shop keeper and flour dealer in Saxham Street.
Henry Raffe, in 1851 had a beer house on the Green
P.Jacobs is a watch repairer in Mill Street
Over the centuries there have been several Boot or shoe makers in Stowupland . Often the work of cobbling was combined with another occupation eg Reeve Wilden was a Boot maker and ran the village post office (along Main Road)
See also Saxham Street Shops.
