New Postcard added to website

A new postcard has been added to the Market Street & Square to Lenten Street page, in the around Alton section of the website.

The picture was taken by someone standing at the top of Market Street, looking towards the high Street. The Town Hall & Market Square would be to the right of the photographer and Amery Street to the left with Lenten Street behind them.

On the left of the image you can see 29 Market Street, at the time of the image it was a butchers, you can just about make out the sign above the shop, which reads Bailey & Rowland. Next door is one of Alton’s lost pubs the Kings Head, at the time of the image the landlord was Thomas Turner Roberts.

The Turner family had a long connection to Alton’s public houses, with Thomas Roberts senior running the Bell in Normandy Street for over 20 years before moving to the Star (also on Normandy Street) and then to the Kings Head. He passed away in 1884 aged 77, leaving his wife Harriett to run the pub, the 1891 Census records her as the Licensee aged 83, she passed in 1900 aged 93. At some point Thomas junior took over the running of the Kings Head, with the Census of 1901 & 1911 recording him as the Licence Holder. He passed away in 1914 aged 69, leaving his son Bertram to take over the licence and continue the family tradition.

On the right of the image, you can see Scarrott’s at 22 Market Street, a Glass & China merchants, this would eventually change hands becoming Tricky’s Domestic Stores. Next door is Faulkner’s Farm Produce Store, a few years before this image (1901 Census) it would have been Gates & Co and a few years after (1911 Census) this would become Pilchers, Fruiters and Butchers.

The building with bay windows is 16 Market Street, at the time of the image it was a Newsagent and Tobacconist owned by John Coxon, you can just about read his name above the door. The business appears to have changed hands a few years later, with Frank Corps recorded as living and working there on the 1911 Census.