26-7 High Street
Now Osbornes, this is the earliest surviving building known on the High Street, dating from around 1480-1500. The whole structure was originally part of a larger property incorporating Nos 28 and 29 which, when sold in 1673, was called The Angel and was probably an inn.
28 High Street
This building has been popular with a variety of watchmakers, including James Beeston, JW Gulliford and Frederick Loader, whose business was just down the hill from his mother Elizabeth’s confectionary shop at No 31. Nos 26-31, along with Nos 110 and 111, were owned by the Hobbs family in 1840.
29 High Street
The Misses L & J Woods sold art and fancy goods from here in the 1880s and were followed by Bennett’s, which sold wool, needlework and sewing machines and was also a cleaners, dyers and fancy bazaar. Culls took over the property in 1927 and by the 1980s the building was known as ‘The Pooh Shop’. It is now Caffe Nero.
James Weeks’ store at Nos 26 and 27 in 1915. His son Fred is standing in the doorway. Fred and his sister Maude helped run the shop before they closed this store and opened a sports and travel goods shop at No 101 in 1927.
