Old Doctors Surgery – Queen Street
David Lee’s comments: The terrace of 3 properties, a 2 up 2 down each end with the shop in the middle. My grandparents Arthur & Lucy Lee bought them for a total of £600 in 1920, helped by a mortgage arranged by their solicitor over 25 years, it was paid off just about the same time as the war ended. As well as groceries they also sold pigeon and hen food plus Spillers dog biscuits, canned pet foods hadn’t arrived at that time. Grandma dealt mainly with the shop whilst grandad did shoe repairs from an outbuilding in the back yard, which he continued to do right up to his death in 1957 at the age of 75.
Working up Queen Street, the properties are numbered 50, 52 (shop) and 54. In 1945 when my dad, another Arthur, came back home from serving in the army in India, it fell on him to take over the shop, although prior to being called up for active service he was an apprentice cutler. He married my mother Hetty in 1946, and they all lived under the same roof until number 50 was vacant when grandma and grandad moved next door. At the same time their elder daughter Hilda and husband Hector Lowe bought number 54 from grandma and grandad I’ll continue the saga another day if anyone is interested.
It was definitely a shop, in fact for far longer than it was ever a doctors surgery. My grandparents were the owners I have a feeling, I went to Lee’s shop with my dad for pigeon corn.
