You would not find a man on horseback on today's High
Street! He is just behind the pony and trap standing outside
the Burgess grocery store. One of the younger shop assistants,
wearing a long white apron, is standing next to the pony
but whether the boy walking past has anything to do with
the shop is unknown.
On the left of the photograph is No 77 which looks very similar
to the way it did then. Even the usage has remained the same
as what is now NatWest Bank was then the County & Westminster
Bank Limited. D. Caudwell F.R.G.S. was the bank's manager
in 1913[1]. Next
door, at 76 High Street, was a double fronted ironmonger's
shop run by George Jones[1].
There are watering cans hanging above the window of the
further shop front and a display of metal garden furniture
is on the pavement. The building was demolished in the
1960s.[2]
Two men are standing on the pavement outside Woods Bros.,
a Pianoforte Warehouse at 75 High Street[1].
The business's name and what they did is clearly visible on
the wall above the first floor windows. Albert Mewett ran
a saddler's next door (no74)[1].
There are railings outside No73, a private house known as
the Old Croft, which was the home of the Medical Practitioner
Gerald Francis Bird and his family in 1911. The front of it
was covered in ivy, which can be seen above the buildings.
There is a sign on the wall of the next shop, but it isn't
clear what it is advertising. However, Frederick William Paine
had a hosiery business at No 72[1] and
at No 71 was the tobacconist and hairdresser Miss Annie Jury[1].
The White Hart was at No 70 High Street[1] and
you can just see where the upper floor of this beautiful old
building juts out over the pavement.
The shop behind the Pepperpot or Pepperbox, now a restaurant, was
advertising a Summer Sale. The Old Market Hall, as it was known
then, was not in use.
The right hand side of the picture is dominated by Burgesses
Stores on the corner of Moss Lane and the High Street. A few
years later the shop was advertised as:
Borough Stores, 35 High street & wholesale grocer, Moss lane
(Charles Burgess, proprietor), wholesale & retail provision
merchant, grocer, tea dealer, wine, spirit & beer bottler,
butcher, fishmonger & poulterer. A comprehensive retail price
list free on application; orders of ten shillings & upwards
sent carriage paid within a radius of 30 miles. [also listed were
the addresses of branches in Farncombe, Hindhead, Haslemere, Shottermill,
Liphook and Woking][1]
If you look at the roof level a few doors down on the right hand
side you will see the letters A and H which belonged to the old
Angel Hotel. And the lights are of note, too. Although the shop
lights are probably gas, Godalming was the first town to have a
public and private electricity supply. |
