5th February Jeremy Harte, Curator of the Bourne Hall Museum
"A Borough of Shopkeepers: Business in local History"
This was a scintillating presentation, where in a short space of time Jeremy covered over 200 years of Epsom history, with the spotlight specific on the development of the retail shopping progression. He covered a vast amount of the changes and indeed details that we see in the modern Epsom. We are indebted that Jeremy has given the Club data which is not yet on their website and permission to utilise these facts, hence a brief summary is given below.
The presentation was well received by the membership and he covered a whole host of allied questions from an even wider perspective, after a well earned vote of thanks the membership showed their full appreciation in our normal manner.
This following extract gives a flavour and some of the points covered by Jeremy's exhilarating presentation.
Before looking at the Epsom shopkeepers, a brief review of the early historical development of Epsom itself will be useful
Epsom began as a small settlement by the Saxons in the late sixth or early seventh century as part of a second wave of settlement. The first wave came after the departure of the Roman army when the government of London to defend it from other raiders hired Saxons.
Epsom’s early name was ‘Ebbisham’, which is taken from the village’s early owner or local chief Ebbi.
But people have lived in this area much longer. A ritual burial of a whole cow in the area now part of Epsom cemetery dates from the New Stone Age. The Bronze Age burial found in Epsom College and recent work during the building at Manor Park has produced some evidence of Bronze Age or Iron Age settlement.
Romans were making roofing or flue tiles on Epsom Common and the site of West Park Hospital. A small Roman pot was found near the old St. Joseph’s church site, possibly from a burial. A group of high-class Roman burials were also found off East Street during clay digging.
Epsom was in medieval times a scatter of several settlements. Epsom itself appears to have begun in Church Street running north from the church. In a seventeenth century survey it is possible to identify a smithy, a carter’s croft, a "playstowe" - presumably the village green - and a number of other homes.
At Stamford on the edge of the Common were possibly a mill, a tile kiln, a chapel, other cottages, and a village green. A further settlement at Woodcote had two greens, an upper and a lower, both against the park of the Abbots of Chertsey, now the RAC Club. To the north at Horton was a hamlet with a moated manor house, and on the edge of the Downs was Langley. It seems likely that the present High Street began as a lane connecting these settlements.
Along what were to become the late sixteenth century, a number of smallholdings, a small farmhouse, and other houses could find the High Street.
Epsom Salts was discovered on the Common at the turn of the seventeenth century. The traditional date is 1618 but another account says that the well was discovered around 1590 and was used locally for drinking and bathing of sores. But by 1629 Epsom Salts were internationally known.
Until the latter part of the seventeenth century most of the property in Epsom was in the hands of local people. But in this period there was major social change. London increased in size and became overcrowded in its original centre, which was very uncomfortable, unpleasant, and insanitary. There was also rapid commercial growth and the merchant classes were enjoying great prosperity.
Problems such as pollution by smoke from coal fires and even the difficulty of finding somewhere to be buried in London’s overcrowded churches lead these merchants to look for somewhere in the country for their families to live. Dr. Thomas Fuller wrote of Epsom in 1660: "no wonder if citizens coming thither from the worst of smoakes into the best of aires find in themselves a perfect alteration."
In 1673 the Richbell family sold their house to Thomas Mills, one of this rising new class. Thomas was a citizen and embroiderer of London. By 1684 he had prospered to become a Merchant Taylor.
Businessmen like Thomas moved their families down to Epsom for a better life. They themselves stayed in London but joined their families on Saturdays, staying until Tuesday. John Toland in his description of Epsom wrote in 1723, concerning music diversions for the ladies: "Here you see them on Saturdays in the evenings as their husbands come from London, on Sundays at church and on Mondays in all their splendour when there are Balls".
Along Hudson Lane from Thomas’ holding was another containing a house, barn, stable, garden, orchard, and in 1680 Epsom’s only recorded shop. Toland describes Epsom buildings as "mighty neat, built most of them after the newest manner, and extremely convenient being purposely contrived for the entertainment of strangers, therefore beautified by their owners to the best of their ability".
The fronts of houses had rows of limes or elms grown to give shade or cover from rain. Toland recalls breakfast and supper being eaten in the open under the trees. The gardens behind the houses were handsome but not large, furnished with pretty walks and planted with salads and fruit trees.
The incoming merchant class kept the houses but rented off the outbuildings and fields to local traders. Thomas Mills rented one of his fields to John Hassnell, cornchandler, and the other to John Bristow, blacksmith.
By the mid-eighteenth century the big holdings were being broken down into smaller ones. Groups of smaller houses or cottages were being built and bigger houses were being divided up to form tenements for both housing and trade. The first shop traded under the name of the Golden Ball. In 1740 it was a haberdashers and a glass shop but 1755 split it into tenements. Trades arrived to service wealthy Epsom residents, for example Edward Cawson, a wig maker.
The Hudson Lane/High Street locality became a service area for visitors and locals alike. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries trades and shops grew up, along with public houses. In 1755 the Coach and Horses was "built where two old cottages lately stood". After the arrival of the railways came the Railway Inn, further down the High Street. Workshops too opened: carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, coachmen and slaughterhouses.
The Spread Eagle, centre of the Bowdens tradition today, was for many years one of Epsom's foremost inns. It was rebuilt for this purpose in 1701, and soon after bought by the Vintner's Company in London. The name - originally the Black Spread Eagle - referred to the Austrian heraldic crest which appeared on imported wine bottles, and for many years a double-headed eagle swung on the signpost at the corner, and was known to give racing tips for the Derby to the favoured few. In 1764 the building passed out of local ownership, coming into the hands of breweries in Dorking and Guildford. With its extensive run of stables at the back, the Spread Eagle could provide for horses as well as their riders, and in the 1820s it kept up a trade war with the nearby Kings Head to see which of them could host the speediest stagecoach service on the turnpike road to Brighton.
Cornelius Hunt, the Spread Eagle's longest-running landlord, provided a large assembly room to the right of the main building to attract local gatherings. Upstairs, a secret room was set aside for the Freemasons. In 1863 Charles Dickens dropped in for a glass of brandy, and George Moore called here on a fact-finding tour for the Derby scene in his novel Esther Waters. The coming of the railway brought an end to the stagecoaches, but not to the horsedrawn traffic, for the Spread Eagle was on the last stretch of the Derby traffic jam when hundreds of vehicles had to pause before they could turn down Ashley Road. Enterprising landlords set up a horsetrough in front of the premises, persuading tired animals - and their owners - to stop awhile for a drink.
Epsom became an attractive possibility for railway companies after 1838, when the London & Southampton line passed through Wimbledon. Next year the London & Croydon line was laid to the east, and the race was on for a line through Epsom to Dorking and, hopefully, onwards to Portsmouth.
During the 1840s and 50s, competing plans were put forward, and by 1859 Epsom (population 4,800) had achieved the dignity of two stations - one in Upper High Street, run by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, and one off Waterloo Road, run by the London & South Western Railway. Meanwhile a line to Portsmouth had been independently achieved through Guildford, and the big companies lost interest.
In 1862 the London Chatham & Dover Railway proposed a line of their own through Epsom, leaving the Victoria line to cut through Church Street and across Rosebery Park, so joining the Leatherhead line on the Common. But local inhabitants felt they had had enough of ‘this grievous destruction of property and the beauty of the place’. Instead, the two main companies came to an agreement to run the line from Epsom to Leatherhead jointly. A short link joined up their two stations in Upper High Street and Waterloo Road respectively. This link, of course, is the very line to be seen behind the Ebbisham Centre today.
Following the arrival of the railway the High Street looked more like a modern street scene. There were now shops and offices, though in 1895 people still had houses there. ‘The Nook’ could be found between a picture frame maker and a dressmaker, and there was still a farrier. But the trades and light industry had moved the other side of the railway to East Street and Hook Road.
In 1895 on the corner of Waterloo road and High Street were the Andrews premises. These included the Post Office (Miss Mary Anne Andrews, postmaster) and James Andrews, stamp distributor and Registrar of Births and Deaths. Andrews were also printers, booksellers, and stationers. The shop was handsomely fitted and literally crowded out with the most fashionable leather and notepaper, envelopes and correspondence cards, and the latest designs in inkstands, blotters, frames, and paperknives. There was a choice assortment of photographs and local views of great artistic merit. Not only was every kind of printing carried out but bookbinding and a lending library could be found there too.
Next to Andrews was Edward Norrington, butchers. The Edwards family had been butchers for 50 years and members of the family still live in Epsom. The shop was reported to be nicely fitted and always clean. Mr. Norrington was reputed to be a great judge of cattle, putting his knowledge to use in purchasing only the very best cattle and sheep. No believer he in foreign suppliers, buying only the best home-fed meat. Like most butchers at this time he kept a slaughterhouse at the rear of the premises where great care was paid to the dressing processes before sale.
Then came Henry Tottle, chemist, and druggist. Above the door stood the proud note: ‘By examination of the Pharmaceutical Society’. Here drugs and prescriptions would have to be made up and an article not in stock could be obtained in 24 hours.
After the chemist came James Harvey, outfitters. Another crowded shop, this time selling men’s and boys’ clothing, hats, caps, ties, braces, shirts, pants, undervests, gloves, collars, cuffs, half hose and umbrellas, all at affordable prices. You too could have your suit bespoke, made with over 100 patterns to chose from - but not on Thursday afternoons as they closed at 2.30!
Next to Harvey’s was the Capital and Counties Bank, with the offices of Wilson and George, solicitors, above. Edmund Wilson was Clerk to the Epsom Urban District Council. The Burial Board and School Attendance Committee met there.
Following the bank was the International Tea Company and then came Edwin Robinson, sewing machine agent. Charles Churchill, saddler and harness maker was next - harnesses for gig carriage, van, cab, cart, and farm. Race and hunting saddlery and everything else the rider could require were also to be found there - horse clothing, waterproof aprons, brushes, sponges and stable fittings. Bags and portmanteaux could be bought and repaired.
A furniture dealer followed, then Walter Jeal, cab proprietor, a photographic studio, a milliner, a dressmaker, a private house, a picture frame maker, another private house, and Theodore Bell, solicitor, Clerk to the Justices and Income Tax Commissioners. Then came Edward Vassie, cabinetmaker, and upholsterer by Royal Appointment. He fitted up ballrooms, made window blinds and carpets ground polished floors and supplied marquees, and could even hire chandelier and supply garden decorations.
Next at Southdown House was Edward Hope, butcher, famous for his Southdown mutton, hams, sausages, pickled tongues and dairy-fed pork. Then came the Railway Inn, a china dealer, a fancy wool warehouse, and a boot and shoemaker. Thomas Chuter and Brother followed builders, undertakers, sanitary engineers, furniture dealer's plumbers, painters, and decorators. They too were brick and tile makers, general builders merchants and on the site.
The old-fashioned order was slowly breaking down, as land was developed around the core of Epsom at a rate to alarm its older people. Beyond the station, houses were being built in twos and threes along the line of new streets; the huge asylums being built at Horton would need accommodation for the attendants, the workmen and their families. At present the navvies who were digging the foundations were seen by the town as an unmitigated nuisance, but they did have money to spend. Elsewhere the new Post Office had just been opened in the High street, street lights had arrived, and the Clock Tower was under repair. About time, too: if it had been left any longer, it would have become dangerous. There were plans to fulfil the original specifications and put lions around each corner, but these were dropped, after some earnest debate as to whether these should be British or African lions. The price of £20 was simply too high!
In 1892 the ‘Historical & Business Guide to Epsom, Leatherhead and Dorking’ reported that Mr. J. M. Oldridge had acquired an old-established draper’s and millinery business in Epsom. Under his able and enterprising management it had, apparently, developed very considerably in the five or so years since he took over.
The shop was located in Waterloo House in the High Street. Although Oldridge only occupied the eastern portion of the premises, he was probably responsible for the name ‘Waterloo House’. Small-town drapers in Southeast England often copied the name of the grand original Waterloo House emporium in Pall Mall, London.
The Epsom building was first known as the ‘Assembly Rooms’. It was the focus of fashionable life in the town’s heyday as a spa in the late seventeenth century. But after the spa’s decline the premises were divided and used for more mundane purposes, including, early on, a draper’s shop.
Oldridge’s predecessor at Waterloo House, John Bailey, ran a very successful drapery business - his establishment was reported to be the only shop of any pretension in the whole neighbourhood. Perhaps there is some echo of the spa’s gaiety in a later description of Bailey’s premises as thronged with ladies purchasing the loud patterned and crudely coloured early Victorian drapery then in fashion’ - allowing for changes in taste!
We know more about Oldridge’s activities, thanks to a detailed description in the 1892 Guide. Mr. Oldridge, it seems, held a very considerable stock of general and fancy drapery, dress materials, ladies’ and children’s underclothing, baby linen, hosiery, and haberdashery. All was of the latest and most fashionable design and best manufacture.
Millinery was apparently a speciality as there is an astonishing list of ladies and children’s (but not men’s) headgear. Hats and bonnets of all descriptions in the latest styles jostle with ribbons in plain, oriental, faille, and satins. (The terminology is a little mysterious today!) English and French flowers and feathers, laces in silk and guipure, caps for widows and servants, hoods, falls and capes complete a bewildering array quite foreign to a largely hatless twenty first century.
A staff of clever assistants was employed at Oldridge’s under the close supervision of the principal. The dressmaking department, under the direction of an experienced first hand, achieved particular success. Very moderate prices, considering the superior quality of the offerings, complete the catalogue of virtues of this establishment. It is no surprise to learn that the firm had gained much popularity among the ladies of the district.
Older residents of Epsom and Ewell will probably remember that the Victorian tradition of a drapery business at Waterloo House continued well into the twentieth century, when the building was occupied by Wheeler’s and later Ely’s department stores.
The Dorling family came to Epsom in 1821 and set up their printing firm in 49 Upper High Street, where, presumably, they began by using the common wooden hand press. From 1834 onwards they used an Albion printing press.
The compositor set type, by hand, from cases containing various designs and sizes of metal or wooden typefaces. When everything had been composed, it was made up into a page or pages, which had then to be secured inside a metal frame, called a chase. The completed forme could then be carried to the printing press.
The forme was positioned on the bed of the press and was inked by the pressman using a hand-held roller. A clean sheet of paper was laid on the tympan, which is hinged so that it can be lowered onto the type forme. The printer then winched the bed, containing the forme under the platen. He then pulled at the bar, which caused a chill and wedge mechanism to force down the platen, which in turn pressed the paper against the inked type. The bed was then run out along the carriage, the tympan lifted, and the freshly printed sheet removed to dry.
Like other jobbing printers, Dorling's produced public notices, advertisements, playbills, and timetables. Their most profitable venture, the List of Epsom Races, was printed throughout the nineteenth century on this hand- press.
In 1979 the business closed down and its goodwill passed to Pullingers, the stationers.
