Family research reminds us of town’s former firms
Born in Maidstone, Joy Colbeck, 92, now lives in Luton in Bedfordshire. But when the former South Borough School pupil began researching her family history, she discovered her ancestors had a long association with commerce in the county town.
The earliest ancestor she was able to find records for was a man called John Doe. He lived in the late 1700s and was a butcher in the town.
She writes: “My maternal great grandfather Alderman Richard Doe, who was John Doe’s grandson, was also a freeman and mayor of Maidstone and built his residence, Buckland House, in London Road, which later became the Sharps Toffee Social Club and his garden became the Maidstone Football Ground!
“He was at some time a partner of Sir Edward Sharp.
“But before that he was in business for himself as an ‘eating-house keeper’, a tobacconist and a butcher in Maidstone’s lower High Street, in the premises which I remember pre-war to have been Henry Payne’s store.
“I am talking about the period from the 1850s to 1890s.”
When Alderman Doe died in 1892, aged 76, the Kent Messenger carried his obituary in which he was described as “a good type of the self-made man”.
It said: “His honesty of purpose and manly uprightness no one who knew him could possibly doubt.” Mrs Colbeck said her grandfather’s partnership with Edward Sharp was shortlived, but there was one lasting memento, he decorated the chimney of his home with a parrot, which was the logo of Sharp’s Toffee.
She said: “Again my maternal ancestors were corn merchants in Earl Street, and my great grandmother and her husband were in businesses in Week Street first at No 74 then in the 1880s they moved into 109 Week Street, as Coombers Toy Shop and Registry Office (for domestic staff), which operated until 1941.”
Mrs Colbeck recalled that in her youth the county town was dominated by the businesses of Foster Clarks, Sharps Toffee and Tilling-Stevens.
Most of the shops, apart from Chiesmans, Woolworths and Marks & Spencer were independents.
She remembers Blakes, Dunnings, and next to Coombers, which by then was being run by her aunt, there was Lindriges, a large fruit and vegetable dealer which had a very large banana shed overlooking the toy shop.
She said: “There was also a rather special fish shop opposite the KM offices in Week Street where you could buy a piece of wet fish from their large selection and then have it fried in the fish and chip shop section.”
Mrs Colbeck worked at County Hall from 1939 until she volunteered for the WRNS in 1941 and moved away from the town.
She said: “My own father, Arthur Wenham, was in partnership with Henry Topley and together they ran the Westborough Grocery Stores from 1921 to 1945.
“Their shop was near Maidstone’s Style and Winch brewery, but it has since been demolished.”
Her father had come from less well-off origins. His ancestors had included Thomas Wenham, born 1794 at Boughton Monchelsea, and described as an agricultural worker, Henry Wenham, born 1838, also at Boughton Monchelsea, a paper-mill worker and George Wenham, born 1859 at 18 Tovil Hill, Maidstone, and described as a boat-builder and painter.
Arthur Wenham was orphaned at an early age and left school at 13. He became an errand boy for the grocers Fry and Page in Maidstone High Street, where he obviously learnt the trade well.
He volunteered for Army service in 1915, but after being demobbed in 1919, returned to Fry and Page for a short time before going into partnership with the store’s manager Henry Topley.
Mrs Colbeck said: “In those days, Maidstone Market was a very large affair in the Fair Meadows on the riverside. Large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were driven through the town to be sold each week.
“At the end of my road, there was a large horse trough for the animals to refresh themselves.
“The Corn Exchange in Earl Street was originally just that, but I remember it as a concert hall.
“In the summer, there would be a large street carnival, which coincided with County Cricket Week in Mote Park.
“It was huge affair, with the Mayor, Sir Garrard TyrwhittDrake, leading the procession on a huge white horse.
“There was also the River Carnival after dark on the Medway.
“I suppose many children did not have annual holidays then, so these events were always well supported.”