A grocer's shop formerly operated from where the children's shoe shop is today in Quoiting Square.
Aaron Maskell originally from the Cookham area (born 1814) ran the business in these specific premises by 1861 (seemingly from 1854). In 1862 he was summoned to court after inspectors found his weighing scales were not properly maintained and thus not weighing true. He said this was just an oversight and the court believed him -it was a common problem. He was allowed to pay only the court costs rather than a fine plus costs.
Aaron hired a shed further up Oxford Road in which he kept ducks and geese. In the 1800 grocers did not usually sell any fresh birds so this looks to have been a different side line business for Aaron. Some of these birds were stolen and slaughtered before they could be recovered in 1865. He is also listed as a bacon curer in 1854. Many grocery shops produced and sold their own bacon in this era with curing taking place on the premises.
Aaron died suddenly in 1873. He had been suffering from chest problems for four years and had been previously diagnosed with heart disease but had not had any recent medical attendance. On the day of his death he woke up with pains in the chest and arm. Today we would understand these as symptoms of a potential heart attack and an emergency situation but Aaron had to be persuaded to even go back to bed to rest let alone seek medical attendance. Eliza Mann* who lived with the Maskells gave him some ginger water (which would have been seen as invigorating) and then called for a doctor. Sadly his condition deteriorated and his life could not be saved.
Aaron's wife Anna (née Hemmens, stated as of Alton in Middlesex when they married in Heigham Norfolk 1837) then took over the helm of the shop. In 1878 her niece in law Emily Hemmens (widow of Charles) who had been assisting the couple for some years became the manager. These proprietor's all had spirit licences too and sold beer, including that of Marlow's Wethered Brewery.
Emily died in 1884 and her assistant George Henry Britnell ran the business himself. George was from Little Marlow originally and married his wife Jane Larkin in Kensington Middlesex in 1885.
In 1890 George's shop assistant Ellen Harris was a witness when a boy stole from the till of a shop in nearby West Street. She gave evidence in court for the prosecution. Theft from shops was very common in Victorian Marlow but it was most often of goods hanging outside or displayed in the window rather than of money.
In the early 1900s George retired in favour of Edward Albert Piercey who moved from Lane End where he had been a licensed victualler. By this time the shop was mostly operating as what we would now call an off licence with groceries of secondary importance. Edward only stayed a few years, transferring the business and its alcohol license over to Edward Neighbour in 1906. Edward kept the store equally as a grocery shop, provisions merchant and off licence. Below is an ad from 1915.
When I was a very little girl I had an elderly friend Elsie Coster who lived as a child in Oxford Road near this shop. Her brother Albert worked running errands for the business as a teenager in the early 1920s and I believe Elsie herself worked there as a shop assistant for a brief period.
Edward's father has a biography post on the blog here. Edward's maternal grandparents feature in this post, while this one features both his aunt and maternal grandma.
The business continued as "E Neighbours" until at least 1933. The business is not in the 1939 Kelly's Directory. Bertram Scammell general shopkeeper was probably in the premises then.
Elsewhere in the Square William Bowles ran a fruiterer's shop from at least 1873 to at least 1897. He survived bankruptcy in 1886. He had a fruit store up Oxford Road and also occupied Oakengrove / Oaken Grove Farm. An old building in Oxford Road he no longer needed was the first home of Marlow's Salvation Army members. This made him somewhat unpopular and he eventually evicted them on the grounds their band practices and meetings were too noisy. You have to remember that the Army apart from promoting teetotalism which was seen as threatening in a brewery town was perceived as radical even dangerously subversive religiously and socially for many other reasons in it's early days. William was not as far as can be seen a member himself.
The shop where William lived and worked no longer exists, neither do his fruit store or the first Salvation Army building. More about the controversial (and violent!) early days of the Salvation Army in Marlow here.
*Eliza Mann married James Meakes of Marlow and the couple kept the Plough pub. More here.
See also previous post on "What did Platts used to be?" for shops that used to be on that Quoiting Square spot here.
See also here for my previous post on Elizabeth Tyler/ Lee whose husband just might have been in the Maskell/ Britnell/ Neighbour etc grocery store in earlier times.
For some history and the historic landlords of the pub next door to the grocery shop mentioned above (the Clayton Arms) see here
Sources:
Historic advertising material.
Bucks Examiner 17th December 1890. Copy held at the British Library Archives. Viewed by me via the British Newspaper Archive March 2021.
Reading Mercury 28th June 1862, accessed as above.
UK Census images my transcription from microfilm, National Archives. Census information remains Crown Copyright.
Heigham Parish Registers
Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, Bucks and Oxon 1854, 1883, 1911, 1915, 1920, 1939 by Kelly's Directories Limited.
Marlow Town Guide 1891.
Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907, 1915. Marlow Printing Company.
Duttons Directory of Buckinghamshire by Dutton, Allen and Co 1863.
GRO Death Index online
Kensington marriage from Jane Pullinger.
Property records.
