60-62

60 High Street

Henry Aldridge, dairyman and tea dealer, was based here in the 1880s, then the estate agents Hewitt & Co in the 1920s. In about 1905 the furniture company C Ford & Co took over the adjoining buildings, moving into No 60 sometime after. This shop closed in 1992, the business in 1997. Willow now occupies this and the adjoining building.

61-62 High Street

Now Willow, this Regency building started life as a grocery business run by Richard Gibbs, a master tea dealer, in the 1840s and 1850s. The next owner was Henry Lamble, who continued the grocery business into the late 1890s. Furnisher Charles Ford & Co took over the building in 1905, running it alongside their store at 47-48 St Thomas Street.

high street - extras
Ford & Co, furniture, removals and storage
A Leyland lorry and trailer waits outside Ford’s shop in about 1919.
high st objects
Charles Ford came from Southampton to open his first furnishing shop at St Thomas Street in about 1840, spreading into Nos 60-62 in the 1900s. One resident remembered: “People liked to have a Ford’s van seen outside their house. Ford’s was the best!” The horses which pulled Fords delivery wagons were stabled in Church Lane and grazed in the field now covered by the car park behind M&S. These wagons were eventually followed by a Leyland open cab lorry and trailer.
From a house at 60 High Street these tiles are from Holland and may have been smuggled into the country. There was a high tax on imported tiles in the 18th century to protect the English industry.

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