In 1847 The Post Office directory lists no traders or businesses seperately for Spencers Wood – in Three Mile Cross by contrast eleven are listed, including two publicans, Joseph Armstrong at the Swan and George Brent at the George and Dragon (now Highway Cottage), 3 bakers, 2 shop-keepers, a butcher, a blacksmith, a saddler, a wheelwright and a bricklayer – not to mention 3 beer retailers (some people “doubled-up” like George Strong, bricklayer and beer retailer). By 1903 Kelly’s
London House Stores, c.1908
Directory lists eighteen business in Spencers Wood and only eleven in Three Mile Cross. As well as the usual trades, like bakers and grocers (and beer retailers) the Directory lists a bootmaker, a blacksmith, a carpenter and a saddler and harness-maker but also a draper, a builder and a coal merchant and even a carriage-builder, Hewitt and Beken’s, and Edwin Wheeler, a builder and brickmaker.
These days the types of businesses have changed – the Spencers Wood branch of the Co-op closed in 1983 to the dismay of many residents, as has the drapers and haberdashery and the electrical repair shop but there are many new businesses, often located in business units on the edge of the villages. We have a collection of information and photographs documenting changes over the years from deliveries of milk and bread by horse and cart to today’s convenience stores.
Today’s Spencers Wood Supermarket
Some of these businesses are listed below – please email us if you can provide us with information about these or any other local businesses – better still, come and talk to us, especially if you’ve worked in any of them.
| Current Business/ occupant of site | Location | Earlier businesses on this site |
| (private house) | Sheraton Ho., Hyde End Road/The Square | Adey’s (Bakers), Saunders & Maynard |
| (private house) | Tintern, Basingstoke Rd. (near Wellington Court) | Beesley’s Stores |
| Blissimi | Basingstoke Rd. (opposite the common) | Anita’s Hair and Beauty |
| BT | The Square | telephone exchange |
| Chandlers | Basingstoke Rd. | – |
| Day Lewis (Chemists) | Basinstoke Rd. | Rankin’s (Chemists), Harrison’s Stores, Farley’s (Chemists) |
| (private house) | Basingstoke Road | Margaret French (Drapers) |
| Grant and Stone’s Builders Merchants | Lambs Lane | Meakin’s Builder’s Merchants |
| Healthy Buildings International | Basingstoke Rd. (near the Farriers) | Sheerman’s (Butchers), Pither’s (Butchers) |
| Jackson’s (Garage) | Basingstoke Rd. junction w. Beech Hill Rd. | Double’s Garage – previously Doubles, the blacksmiths on the corner of the Square |
| – | Judd’s Sawmill | |
| Malborough House (appartments) | Basingstoke Rd. | Society for Microbiology, The Co-op, Dearlove’s Nursey |
| Mias | Basingstoke Rd./ Hyde End Road | Televid Traders |
| One Stop/ Spencers Wood Post Office | Basingstoke Road | Post Office |
| Parkers (Estate Agents) | Basingstoke Road | Hop Inn (Off Licence), The Cricketers |
| Spencers Wood Supermarket | Basingstoke Rd. | London House Stores |
| Valley Vet Group | Basingstoke Road | previously private house |
| Village Maid (Cheese-maker) | Hyde End Road – Moved to Risely | previously private house |
| Warrings (Bakers) | Basingtoke Road | Philpott’s Bakery |
| Whiteknights | Tankerton House, Basingstoke Rd. | Flower Corner (Cottee’s), Wavy Line Stores, Middleton’s Stores |