Reminiscences of Rotherham by Alderman Geo. Gummer, J.P.

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OTHER STREETS

College Street, even now nothing to boast about, was not the street it is to-day. An old-fashioned public-house known as the King’s Arms; stood on the site of the premises occupied by Messrs Duncan Gilmour. Where the Midland Bank now stands, with the exception of a small confectionery business and bakehouse, owned by Mr. Bell , was vacant land. Compton House and the ‘Falstaff were then unknown, the site being occupied by low-wooden huts in which a man named Sykes sold furniture.

One readily recalls the tradesmen in this street, such as Dodson, the ironmonger; Hutchinsons, wine and spirit merchants; Turner, the saddler, whose son Walter attended Low Ash School with me; Needham,watchmaker;Chas. Kenyon, confectioner; James Stansfield, tobacconist, newsagent, and barber; Philips, draper; Steel and Brown, drapers; Green, of the Boiling Tea-Kettle; Wilkes, dealer in baby linen; Pontis, herbalist: Scott, poulterer; Goodger, barber; Hanby,tobacconist of Old No. 12; and Boulton, the confectioner. These names will still be remembered by hundreds of my readers.

OLD VICTORIANS

So I could go on drawing on my memory of the past , but suffice it to give a few other names of tradesmen in Bridgegate and Westgate, men well-known anti highly respected in their day and generation.

Such were Tommy Belcher, tobacconist; Sam Cullis, shoemaker; John Dickinson. Boot dealer, who served as a Guardian for 30 years and lived to be 97 years of age; Bob Mason. butcher and a famous athlete; Charles Dobson. fishmonger; Edward Hickmott, grocer; Benjamin Saville, the Beau Brummel of Rotherham ; Harry Flintham, seedsman,better known as Spud and dare devil Dick. If there was any mischief about Flintham would be the leader. One of his pranks I well remember. During the night he changed the signs of several tradesmen. The astonishment of the owners when they arrived at business the following morning can be better imagined than described. Others were Fawley, the nailmaker, with whose son I went to school; Abraham Gilling, printer and stationer, to whom many of the church people went for their requirements; Hammonds, who were followed by Eatons, the pawnbrokers, where cWilliam Whitaker, late, well known chairman of the Rawmarsh Local Board, was at this period, manager; John Waring and Alfred France, described as the two best butchers in the town; William Kitchingman, the tailor in Market Street, maker of the Hunting costumes for Earl Fitzwilliam and the gentry in the neighbourhood. Albert Bibbs, jeweller and pawnbroker, familiarly called the Bombardier; J. Macdonald, William Gates, shoemaker and proprietor of the Turkish baths in Sale’s yard, who in later years, moved higher up Bridgegate.

It will be noticed how often the term , shoemaker, is used, this being distinct from boot and shoe dealer. Ready-made boots and shoes were not so popular as they are now. Clogs were worn by quite a number of people. Shoemakers were numerous, although ‘ready mades’, were fast making their way in public favour. All the tradesmen mentioned were well known, and in recalling incidents varied in character their names readily occur to me. Some of these incidents I shall relate; others I dare not.

I became acquainted with the business habits of many of these tradesmen through having to attend my father’s shop in Church street, where had all auction mart and furniture warehouse. Incidentally the first auction sale I attended and clerked at was that of the mother of John Dean, a well-known workman of Guest and Chrimes. I was then only eleven years of age.

Very few of the businesses mentioned exist to-day. Multiple shops have taken the place of many, and others, it is to be hoped, disappeared only after a competency had been acquired.       » next

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