71 High Street
Butcher Samuel Belbin had a shop here in 1801 where he trained apprentice John Ford. By 1822 he was a highways surveyor and by the 1830s was licensed to let horses. The premises became Tanner & Sharp’s ironmongery in the 1840s. Thomas Sharp was manager in 1859 and also ran a Post Office. It became a shoe shop – firstly Sillis & Son and then Webbs Shoes – in 1905 and is now Specsavers.
72 High Street
Milliner Sarah St John was based here from the 1850s to at least 1878 followed by Henry St Barbe in 1895. In 1914 it was a chemists run by WR Wheeler and Percival Hunter Coe. The business was bought by Cyril (Davy) Smith in 1937, who lived in Belmore Road with his wife Busty. Davy became a magistrate and was referred to by one of the men he sentenced as ‘that old bugger with the black bushy eyebrows’. It is now Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
73 High Street
In 1836 printer and bookseller Richard Galpine ran his business from here, which included a Post Office. Lymington High School, run by Mr and Mrs Harvey, also seems to have been based above this shop from about 1911, although may not have outlasted the First World War. Co-op moved into the building in the 1930s and it has held a variety of different businesses since the 1940s. It now houses Hope Jones and Oxfam.
James Sillis bought No 71 in about 1905 and set up a shoe shop, having previously been a grocer’s assistant at 26 St Thomas Street. When he died in 1933 his daughter Elsie continued to run the business. She is shown on the right in this photo from the 1930s.
Sillis & Son was taken over by builder Frederick Webb in 1950. He and his wife Connie lived at Green Hayes in Grove Gardens. In 1964 his son Graham took over the business and married Sue White. They began their married life in the flat at the top of the building, which was entered through a side door and up narrow, twisting stairs. These photos show the shop in about 1970. It ceased trading in 1988.
The long, narrow garden of No 71 in about 1970. The wavy wall adjoining No 72 is just visible to the right of the first photo. A small hatch led from the attics to a roof area, which gave wonderful views over the Solent and the Isle of Wight. The property also had a large cellar.
