{"id":4075,"date":"2022-06-16T22:24:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T22:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/?page_id=4075"},"modified":"2022-06-16T22:24:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T22:24:51","slug":"trades-and-businesses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/swlhg.co.uk\/index.php\/trades-and-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Trades and Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

London House Stores, c.1908<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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\u2019s convenience stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s Spencers Wood Supermarket<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some of these businesses are listed below \u2013 please email us<\/mark><\/a> if you can provide us with information about these or any other local businesses \u2013 better still, come and talk to us, especially if you\u2019ve worked in any of them.<\/p>\n\n\n