You are in [Places] [Bridge Street Properties] [7 Bridge Street]
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Summary:
Earliest information: 1753
Original estate: Priory of St. John
Common Rights? Yes (40 ft frontage; 2 horses or 4 cows)
Date of current building: Late 18th century
Grade II Listed
Thumbnail History:
All the properties on the "island" [1-5 Bridge Street] stand on land that was previously the Priory of St. John the Baptist, which had been established in 1232, and was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1548. In 1740 a new road incorporating two bridges was built for easier access to town from Charnham Street, replacing old road in front of Riverside House and through the ford across the River Dun (by Forge Cottage).
Common Rights. Quit Rent 3d.
Biggs -> Woodroffe -> Batt -> Phelps (hairdresser) -> butcher (Langford / Cruse -> White -> Piggott -> Rumball -> Mills) -> Smith (greengrocer, florist) -> Lumens -> Paravacini -> Stanbury -> Bridge House-> Antiques -> Furr & Co (goldsmiths) -> Owen & Jones (goldsmiths)
Description of property:
From Listed Building records: House, now shop. Late 18th century. Tiled roof with 20th century roof light, brick dentil eaves. Painted brick. Forms angle in street. 2 storeys and attic. East front; one glazing bar sash above altered 19th century shop front of pilasters, fascia and cornice, former door opening to left now display window. West front: 2 glazing bar sashes with near flush frames and 20th century shop front in similar style to that on east front set at angle to main wall of building with door to left.
Photo Gallery:
7 Bridge Street, Mar 2007
Town Mill and 7 Bridge Street c1900
Rumballs Butchers Van outside Gt Bedwyn Church, c1930-31: Thomas Holliday had an incident in Great Bedwyn where he sped across the bridge only to hit a herd of cattle on the other side, some of which ended in the canal. His wife Gladys remembered him coming home with his boots full of glass from the broken windscreen. [Kindly sent Mar 2015 by John Taylor, grandson of Thomas Holliday]
Rumballs Butchers Van, c1930-31: Thomas Holliday and another butcher with the ?1930 Morris van, thought to be the first delivery van of its kind in Hungerford. Thomas Holliday went on to worked for Mills Butchers. [Kindly sent Mar 2015 by John Taylor, grandson of Thomas Holliday]
7 Bridge Street, Elizabeth Stanbury, Nov 1994.
Owen & Jones, Goldsmiths and Jewellers, 14th October 2022.
Furr & Co. Member of the National Association of Goldsmiths, 2022.
- 7 Bridge Street, Elizabeth Stanbury, Nov 1994.
- 7 Bridge Street, March 2007.
- Town Mill and 7 Bridge Street c.1900.
- Rumballs Butchers Van, c.1930-31: Thomas Holliday and another butcher with the ?1930 Morris van, thought to be the first delivery van of its kind in Hungerford. Thomas Holliday went on to worked for Mills Butchers. [Kindly sent Mar 2015 by John Taylor, grandson of Thomas Holliday].
- Rumballs Butchers Van outside Gt Bedwyn Church, c.1930-31: Thomas Holliday had an incident in Great Bedwyn where he sped across the bridge only to hit a herd of cattle on the other side, some of which ended in the canal. His wife Gladys remembered him coming home with his boots full of glass from the broken windscreen. [Kindly sent Mar 2015 by John Taylor, grandson of Thomas Holliday].
- Furr & Co. Member of the National Association of Goldsmiths, 2022.
- Owen & Jones, Goldsmiths and Jewellers, 14th October 2022.
Timeline:
1732 See Inventory of William Biggs, tallow chandler. He definitely had ownership of 6BS and 7BS.
The inventory was published on 15th March 1732. William was a Tallow Chandler, and also sold brandy! The inventory is very detailed, and describes the contents of the following accommodation: Shop, Parlour, Parlour chamber, garrett, Shop Chamber, Stairhead Chamber, Kitchen Chamber, pantrye, buttery, passage, little closet, kitchen, candle house, sopehouse, Brandy House and Stable (which included three horses as well as a "maillpillion" and all the tackle). This was a substantial property and including the "Room over the river" (6 BS) and 7 BS on the town side of river.
1740 New road & 2 bridges built connecting Charnham Street & bridge Street, replacing old road & ford, hence sharp bend in road here.
1741 Phoebe Biggs. Interestingly, a fire insurance policy taken out by Phoebe Biggs (William Biggs' widow) in 1741 (after the new Bridge Street buildings were created) seems to suggest that several of the items in her husband's inventory are "outhouses" or back garden workshops. The policy, dated 31st March 1741, describes Phoebe as "tallow chandler and soap boiler" and covers her "dwelling house and shop under one roof only, part thatched, up to £150; her household goods, utensils and stock in trade therein only - £150; "the workhouse only, separate, £40; utensils and stock therein only - £40; and her stables and other outhouse adjoining each other, separate from the above - £10. Total £400.
1753-61 (QR) Phoebe Bigg for her house, q.r. 3d.
1768 A window glass on the second floor at the rear overlooking the mill race is scratched "1768 Woodroffe".
1774-80 (QR) Anthony Woodroffe for house late Biggs, q.r. 3d. (7 & 6 Bridge Street)
1781 (CL) Anthony Woodroffe (?only one entry covering 6 & 7 BS?)
1795-1804 (QR) Anthony Woodroffe for house late Biggs
1805-17 (QR) Devisees of Sarah Woodroffe for house late Biggs, q.r. 3d. (7 & 6 BS)
1807 (CL) Anthony Woodroffe (7& 6 BS)
1818-23 (QR) Devisees of Sarah Woodroffe (deleted) Batt for house late Biggs, q.r. 3d.
1832 (QR) Robert Batt for house late Sarah Woodroffe's, q.r. 3d.[6 BS = Robert Batt for the Room over the River (6d)]
1836 (QR) Robert Batt for the house late Woodroffe's (8d sic- unclear why – HLP)
1841 (CS) John Phelps (50) (hairdresser)
1847 (CL) John Phelps (owner & occupant)
1851 (CS) John Phelps (63!) (confectioner & hairdresser)
1861 (CL) James Langford (owner), William Cruse (occ)
1861 (CS#9) William Cruse (50) (butcher)
1864 (BD) William Cruse (butcher)
1871 (CS) William Cruse (61) (butcher)
1881 (CS) Thomas White (64) (butcher)
1891 (KD) John Rushley Piggott (butcher)
1896 (CL) Ernest James Rumball (owner & occupant) (butcher)
1903 (KD) Ernest J. Rumball (butcher)
1906 (CD) Ernest J. Rumball (butcher)
1914 (CL) Ernest James Rumball
1915 (T&M Register) Herbert Stuart Rumball (owner)
1916 (CD) H. Rumball (butcher) (lived in Church Street)
1920 (KD) Herbert Stewart Rumball (butcher)
1929 (T&M Register) Alfred Mills, snr (owner until 1967)
c1930-31: See photos above of the Morris delivery van (kindly sent by John Taylor, Mar 2015.
See also Holliday Family
1932 (QR) A. Mills Senr, for "House formerly Biggs afterwards Woodroffes late Batts then J. Phelps", q.r. 3d. Miss Elsie Mills & her sister Mrs. Minnie Britton, interviewd by LPP 7.3.1983: their father's first butcher shop in Hungerford was at 48 High Street, then moved to 103 High Street & then bought 7 Bridge Street from Mr Rumball, who moved to Newbury. The Mills brothers went to butchers in Swindon & Ramsbury, leaving Alfred to run the Bridge Street shop by himself (with Elsie and Minnie) until 1958. There were three other butchers in the town: Co-op, Pratt's and Quenby's. In 1958 Mr. Mills retired to Walton Cottage, Eddington (he was a keen gardener, and laid out the garden there) & the 2 sisters retired to live at 9 Croft Villas (one sister moved to a nursing home 1993).
1939 (Blacket's) A. Mills & Sons, butchers
1939 (KD) Alfred Mills & Sons (butcher)
1947 (CL) Alfred Mills Snr. (butcher)
1952 (CL) Alfred Mills Snr. (butcher)
1956 (CL) Miss Elsie Mills
1958 (Miss Norah Smith, interviewed by LPP 28.2.1983.) Mills sisters sold to Miss Nora Smith (greengrocer & florist). Her brother George Smith ran a photographic studio upstairs.
1963 Nora Smith (Greengrocers)
1968 (T&M Register) Norah Smith (owner)
1968 Nora Smith (Greengrocers)
1970 Nora Smith (Greengrocers)
1976 Nora Smith (Greengrocers)
1978 Nora Smith – greengrocer, florist
1980 Nora Smith sold to Major Smith (no relation) (greengrocer)
1981 (Sep) Lumens (Robert Schafer) (lighting centre)
1983 (CL) Void
1984 (CL) Void
1985 (CL) David Michael John Gunning
1988 Paravacini (Johnny Paravicini "Decorative furniture, paintings and objects d'art of 18th, 19th and 20th century".
1993 Paravicini closed. Elizabeth Stanbury (cashmere & lambswool knitwear) opened.
1997 Bridge House Antiques
2000 (CL) Void
2005 (CL) Void
1.2.2006 Furr & Co – Goldsmiths and Jewellers (moved from 9 BS). Greg & Rachel Furr.
2011 (CL) Gregory Furr
Oct 2022: Owen & Jones - Goldmiths and Jewellers
See also:
- Notes prepared by Hugh & Lois Pihlens for Greg Furr 2006
- Cert Ed Form I at Council School (Norah Smith), 31 Mar 1926.
- Christian Endeavour Certificate for Norah Smith, Oct 1931. (from Stewart Hofgartner)
The Canal Wharf, 2011