Shopping in Saxham Street
The longest lasting shop in Saxham Street was Gyford’s but we know of several retailers who were in business for shorter periods.
The earliset shops we know of were:
- 1468 we have mention of a shop ‘Cowperes’ from the will of John Bylls with land and a tenement called Coes in Saxton.
In the 1487 will of John Kebyll of Stowmarket there is mention of a shop ‘formerly John Fenkel’s afterwards Geoffrey Goddard’. In a Thorney Hall rental of 1711 we read Fenkells and Harveys are in the hamlet of Saxon
Cyril Earnest Rogers (b13/7/1910) had a license as a tobaconnist. His family home was Rainbow Cottage (either 27 or 29) Saxham Street. According to the 1939 Register this was next door to an unused shop but Ena Carter’s noted that he did not sell from a shop as such and at his time Ena was living in stowupland.
In 1939 Cyril was a farm worker, his father William was a poultryman and his mother was an unpaid domestic worker.
Kellys 1896: Samuel Smith, shop keeper and Blacksmith on Saxham Street.
Joseph Shulver (his daughter Harriet married Denis Beecroft from Saxham Street). Joseph is named as a shop keeper in 1869
Kellys 1891/2: Elijah Burrows, shop keeper Saxon (sic) Street.
:
1885 (Whites): Elizabeth Moore, carpenter, shop keeper and flour dealer in Saxham Street.
