Saxham Cottage, Saxham Street, Stowupland (tm 215)
The first owner/occupier we know of is John Quinton. He is named in the 1839/40 Tithe Apportionment .
This detail taken from the 1840s Tithe map shows Quinton’s cottage (215) and the property across the road (214) that was his carpenter’s shop. He also owned other properties in Saxham Street.
We don’t know when the property became known as Saxham Cottage, but for simplicity it will be referred to as such.
In the second half of the 19th century it becomes more difficult to be certain as to who is living in Saxham Cottage . The most likely successor is John Robinson
We do known that the Gyford family had moved into the house by the 1911 census. The most likely predecessors to the Gyfords was the Goldsbury’s. They were there from the 1880s to early 1900s
Thw 1881 census gives the most likely resident of Saxham Cottage as Edmund Goldsbury (b 1820) with his son also called Edmund (b 1845). Edmund Goldsbury is also named on the 1891 Electoral Roll. In 1901 Edmond, the younger (at age 57) is living in Saxham Cottage with his sister Sarah (b 1858). She is working as a warehouse assistant.
At the start of the 20th century the Gyford family took up residence and within a few years were advertising themselve as tailors.
By the 1930s the Gyford’s had expanded their business and erected new premises on adjoining land.
The business was run by Mr and Mrs Gyford and their son Chas (Charles). Following the deaths of his parents Chas married and his wife Elsie worked in the shop.
Following the death of her husband, Chas Gyford, in 1938 Elsie continued to live in Saxham Cottage and run the Gyford shop. She employed several shop assistants, often taking in a shop girl as a boarders.
In the 1950’s Elsie remarried and moved out of Saxham Cottage, Sidney and Joan Scarlett moved in, with their young son.
By the late 1970s the shop had been demolished and a garage built. This was subsequently demolished and the land sold off.The pair of cottages to the right of the garage are still there but no longer known as Cobbold Cottages
We are gratful to a local resident for sharing this photo, its date is not known nor why it might have been taken. The hedge in the front garden of Viesities is still there as is the telegraph pole. However the corrugated shed was demolished a few years ago and the hedge across the road is long gone.
By 2010 a new house had been built where the Gyford’s shop once stood.
