7 & 8 High Street

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Summary:

Original estate: ?Hungerford
Earliest records: ?1573
Date of building: c.1700
Grade II listed
Commoner's Rights: Yes (now assigned to 8 High Street) (Frontage 36ft; 2 horses or 4 cows)

Thumbnail History:

The modern 7 & 8 High Street were a single property, but now the northern part (No. 7) is part of Martin the Newsagent (No. 6). The early history (by Norman Hidden) covers the whole property. The property was one of those destroyed in the Great Fire of Hungerford in 1566. Cordwainer; boot and shoe maker, coffee tavern, boot and shoes, newsagents.

20th century records are split into the two separate units. Note: The numbering has changed. Documents of 1933 refer to 6 and 6a, not 7 and 8! No. 7 was "formerly No. 6"

Description of property:

From Listed Building records: House, now house and shops. Circa 1700. Tiled roof, three gabled dormers, wide flat eaves, red brick walls. Two storeys and attic. Four glazing bar sashes with exposed moulded box frames. Modern shop fronts.

Photo Gallery:

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I.T. Repair Gurus, Jun 2017

20180820 7&8 High Street

LHS-108

LHS-139

20200811 6, 7 and 8 HS

- Lower High Street, c.1911.

- Seconds, c.1978.

- Benbows, Dewhurst, Seconds and Martin, ?January 1987.

- 7 & 8 High Street, January 2007.

- The Hidden River, Kitchen Deli, Octpber 2012.

- I.T. Repair Gurus, June 2017.

- W H Smith, 7 & 8 High Street, August 2018.

- W H Smith, 6,7 & 8 High Street, August 2020.

Timeline:

1573(?) (NH) Decayed by fire. Edmund Marshall, q.r. 4d.
1609 (NH) Edmund Marshall, tenement and backside + 1 acre, q.r. 4d

1663 (NH) Hearth Tax – Pollerne
1667 (NH) F of F: Marshall to A. Pollerne (19 Chas II Mich.) 1 messuage, 1 garden, 1 orchard, 8½ acres in Hungerford, Inkpen and Leverton.
1670 (NH) CP25/2/625/ 22 Chas II Trin.. Adrian Pollerne and Tobias Pollerne purchased from Edmund Stephens senior and Dorothy his wife and Richard Stephens and Mary his wife, 1 messuage, 1 barn, 1 stable, 1 curtilage, 1 garden, 1 orchard, 12 acres land in Hungerford and Sandon Fee.
1672 (NH) Will of Adrian Pollerne (probate 1673) – leaves to brother John Pollerne a messuage, now in occupation and possession of William Stanton, backside, garden and a little (piece) of ground which Adrian Pollerne purchased from Edmund Marshall.
[No. 8HS] To brother Tobias for 4 years use of the messuage I now dwell in + 4 acres arable purchased of Edmund Marshall and thereafter to nephew Richard Pollerne.
Note: William Stanton had married Hannah Marshall in 1652.

1673 (NH) Adrian Pollerne, Richard Pollerne
1676 (NH) (QR) William Stanton for Lewises land q.r. 4d. [William Stanton was an apothecary]
Tobias Pollerne for his house q.r.4d
1684 (NH) H.C.B. William Stanton a householder has refused to pay his headpenny and is therefore deprived of his rights on Common
1690 (NH) H.C.B. Heirs of Richard Pollerne

1690 (NH) Frances Stevens nee Pollerne claimed a messuage left in will of Richard Pollerne. Tobias claims messuage was left to him and his wife during their lifetime.

1696 (NH) Richard Browne married M. Buffton

1700 (NH) ??Joseph Wells

1704 (NH) Poor Rate: Richard Browne – house late Pollerne's

1729-30 (NH) H.C.B. ??Thomas Wells

1753-61 (QR) … Graham for his house late Wells's, q.r. 4d.

1781 (CL) Thomas Mundy

1774-90 (QR) Thomas Graham for house late Wells amended to Seymour Mundy for house late Graham, q.r. 4d.

1795 This may be the house whose contents, owned by Seymour Mundy, deceased, were advrtised for sale in the Reading Mercury of 5th October 1795. A long description of the "complete household furniture and effects" is given.

1795-1804 (QR) Nathan Atherton, for house, q.r. 4d.
1805-17 (QR) Nathan Atherton, for house late Seymour Mundy's, q.r. 4d.
1807 (CL) illegible
1818-23 (QR) Nathan Atherton, for house late Seymour Mundy's, q.r. 4d. (sic!)
1819 (EA) Burgage plot un-named
1832 (QR) Devisees of Nathan Atherton, for house late Seymour Mundy's, q.r. 4d. (sic!)
1836 (QR) Matthew (?Nathan) Atherton, for house late Seymour Mundy's, q.r. 2d. (sic!)
1841 (CS) ?Mary Bartlett (35), Milliner?
1847 (CL) Nathan Atherton; Francis Church (occ)
1851 (CS) "Uninhabited"

1861 (CL) Henry Clements
1861 (CS) ?Emma Earl (33), schoolmistress. Henry Clements (48), cordwainer.
1871 (CS) Henry Clements (58) Boot and shoe maker.
1881 (CS) Henry Clements (69) Boot and shoe maker.
14.6.1881 (DD) By his will, Henry Clements of Hungerford, Boot and Shoe maker, appointed Charles Osmond of Hungerford, Postmaster, and William Gee Taylor of Hungerford, Chemist, as Trustees and executors. Gave and devised unto his trustees "His freehold dwellinghouse situate in the High Street, Hungerford, and known as the Coffee Tavern". From rents, they should pay his wife Dinah Clements an annuity, surplus if any to go to two daughters, Margaret Hawkes and Kate Clements equally.

Jun 1881 Coffee Tavern opened, run by Mr Fidler of Newbury.

From the Parish Magazine dated June 1881:

"On Saturday May 28, the new Coffee House in High Street was opened under very favourable auspices. After a meeting at the Corn Exchange presided over by G. C. Cherry, Esq., which was largely attended by inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood, the company proceeded to the Coffee House, and the opening ceremony was gracefully performed by Mrs Wroughton. The premises, which have been appropriately fitted up, are very commodious for the purpose. There is large Refreshment Bar facing the street, of very bright and attractive appearance, and at the back of this is a roomy dining-room in which hot dinners are served daily at ninepence and a shilling. Up stairs there is a Ladies Coffee Room nicely furnished, and two good bedrooms. In the rear of the premises there are five bedrooms for single men, the charge for which is eightpence a night. All sorts of American drinks, tea, coffee, cocoa, lemonade, soda water, etc., are sold at the bar; a list of prices being exhibited in the window. Under the superintendence of the managing Director, Mr T Fidler of Newbury, there is no doubt that the management will be all that can be desired, and it is hoped that the establishment of the Coffee House will be a great boon to the Town and neighbourhood."

22.6.1886 (DD) Codicil to will changes Trustees and Executors to Elisha Love of Hungerford, Inkeeper and George Taylor, Accountant.
16.1.1891 (DD) Henry Clements died at Hungerford.
11.3.1891 (DD) Henry Clements will proved (at Oxford)
7.7.1897 (DD) Dinah Clements died at Hungerford.

1896 (CL) Devisees of Henry Clements; Samuel Hawkes (occ)
1902 (T&M Register) Devisees of Henry Clements (owners)
1903 (T&M Register) Samuel Hawkes (occupier until 1911)
1912 (T&M Register) George Harvey Batten (occupier, 1912 only)
1914 (CL) Devisees of Henry Clements; (Void occ)
24.12.1916 (DD) Margaret Hawkes died intestate.
1916 (T&M Register) Robert Bass (occupier)
8.4.1918 (DD) Will of Kate Clements

7 High Street:

(Latterly Martin the Newsagent (south end))

<1919 Cash & Co Boots and Shoes.

20.4.1930 (DD) Kate Clements died at Hungerford.
23.3.1933 (DD) Statutory Declaration by Arthur Harry Hawkes, hairdresser. Eldest son of Margaret Hawkes (died 24.12.1916), who was entitled to half-share of 6 High Street (derived from her father Henry Clements). Declares that 6 High Street had formerly been know as "The Coffee Tavern" .
25.3.1933 (DD) Conveyance (of 6 High Street, but not 6a High Street) from William George Hawkes (Southall, Middlesex, Stationmaster) and Kathleen Hetty Jones (Manchester) to George William Cressell Turner (Leicester, Gentleman) for £725.
1933 (DD) Abstract of Title of William George Hawkes and Kathleen Hetty Jones (Trustees of the estates of Henry Clements and Kate Clements, both deceased) to freehold dwellinghouse situate in the High Street, Hungerford, and known as The Coffee Tavern.

1933 (T&M Register) Bertram Phillip Thorne (owner & occupier)

21.7.1933 (DD) Lease of "6 High Street – currently in occupation of Cash and Company" by George William Cresswell Turner and W. & E. Turner Ltd., for 21 years.
1939 (Blacket's) Cash & Co., boots and shoes (J. Beech, manager)
12.6.1951 (DD) Letter from Messrs W. & E. Turner Ltd (Multiple Footwear Distributors, of Leicester, "(incorporating Cash & Co.") to W.H. Smith & Son Ltd about a leaking gutter issue.
19.4.1954 (DD) Lease of 7 High Street by G.W.C. Turner to W. & E. Turner Ltd – 7 years from 26.3.1954, £100 pa.
25.11.1960 (DD) Lease of 7 High Street by G.W.C. Turner to Jesse Jackson Beech Esq – 7 years from 25.3.1961, £200 pa.
16.8.1967 (DD) George Turner died

1968-69 (T&M Register) Edwaard Kenneth Escott(owners & occupiers)

3.12.1970 (DD) Conveyance from Personal Reps of G.W.C. Turner to Mr & Mrs J.L. Newton

3.12.1970 John and Brenda Newton bought S. end (7HS) from Turners (Kenneth Bowder, Solicitor of Leicester and Joyce Turner of Paignton). (Mr Beech, manager), one of a chain of Leicester shoe-shops (in 7HS since at least 1919).

14.9.1981 (DD) John Newton leased 6, 6a and 7 HS to Martin the Newsagent for 25 years.

1990 Includes sub-post-office (which was started when the Crown Post Office at 126 HS closed for counter services. New pillar box placed in pavement outside).

2017 April: Martin the Newsagent closed. Property empty.

2017 Oct: WH Smith opened after refurbishment. Post Office Counters opened 20th October 2017.

8 High Street:

1919 Mr Alfie Bass, grocer and sweet shop

1932 (QR) Mr. Beavis, for "House formerly Seymour Mundy's afterwards Nathan Atherton". (Position unclear, q.r. 4d.

1939 (Blacket's) B. Thorne & Son, grocers
1940s Mr & Mrs Lionel Thorne, grocer and soft toys (made by Mrs Thorne).
1947 (CL) Bertram Phillip Thorne
1952 (CL) Bertram Phillip Thorne
1956 (CL) Bertram Phillip Thorne

1963 (CL) William Alfred Webb

1968 (CL) Edward Kenneth Escott

1970 (CL) Void

1970s Seconds kitchenware, (owned and run by Mr Euston Bishop, who lived at Chisbury). Colin Cohen kindly emailed (Feb 2018) to explain that Euston was named after an uncle who died in WWI, who had been born in Euston Square, and who had a brother Redcliffe, who was born in Redcliffe Gardens).
1976 (CL) Eustace (sic!) Mannin Bishop
1978 Seconds - kitchenware
Late 1980s Euston Bishop died. Dr Shirley Bishop and Jenny ….. continued.
1983 (CL) Eustace (sic!) Mannin Bishop, Seconds
1984 (CL) Eustace Mannin Bishop
1985 (CL) Eustace Mannin Bishop

1998 Sold to Brian Rogers (Eddington Mill House) Kitchenmonger (others in chain at Newbury and Marlborough)
2000 (CL) Void
2005 (CL) Denise Rogers
2011 Mar: Kitchenmonger moved to larger premises at 25 High Street

2011 (CL) Void
2011 Casanova at Home - a deli run by Alessandro Zompetti of Casanova (at The Three Swans Hotel)

2012 The Hidden River, Kitchen Deli.
Feb 2014 The Hidden River closed.

May 2017 I.T. Repair Gurus, computer repairs and sales.

April 2022 I.T. Repair Gurus closed, and re-opened at 9a High Street.

May 2022: Premises unused.

Key:

CL = Commoners List

See also:

- Letter from W & E Turner to W H Smith regarding a water butt, Jun 1951

- Various plans of adjacent properties re Newton to Martin sale, Dec 1981

- Post Office opens in W.H. Smith, 20th October 2017 (Tony Bartlett's photos)