It was an early Monday morning on Beech Road in 2020, and apart from the odd dog walker and jogger, I had the place to myself.
Now the Beech Road Community signs which went up during the lockdown have already been recorded, but that didn’t stop me photographing them.
But once that was done, it occurred to me that I should just lift the carpet on the history of the shops, and because you have to start somewhere, here is Truth the Hairdressers, who have been doing the business since 1990.
A quick glance of the directories shows that the previous owners were a varied bunch.
Before Truth it had been the Wool Shop, owned by Mrs. England, while in 1969 this was the draper’s shop of Mrs. E.P. Walsh, and a full half century before this, was the draper’s shop of Mrs. Rosa Ellen, who had replaced a William Henry Bratby who in 1903 was a “cycle agent”.
There are gaps in the timeline, but I am confident someone will come forward to fill them, and perhaps offer up an explanation for why in 1939, there is no a retail business listed in the 1939 Register, only a Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd who lived there. He was an electrician and a member of the Observer Corps.
Location; Beech Road, May 18th
Picture; Truth, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Wool Shop, circa 1980s, from the Lloyd Collection
Now the Beech Road Community signs which went up during the lockdown have already been recorded, but that didn’t stop me photographing them.
But once that was done, it occurred to me that I should just lift the carpet on the history of the shops, and because you have to start somewhere, here is Truth the Hairdressers, who have been doing the business since 1990.
Before Truth it had been the Wool Shop, owned by Mrs. England, while in 1969 this was the draper’s shop of Mrs. E.P. Walsh, and a full half century before this, was the draper’s shop of Mrs. Rosa Ellen, who had replaced a William Henry Bratby who in 1903 was a “cycle agent”.
There are gaps in the timeline, but I am confident someone will come forward to fill them, and perhaps offer up an explanation for why in 1939, there is no a retail business listed in the 1939 Register, only a Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd who lived there. He was an electrician and a member of the Observer Corps.
Location; Beech Road, May 18th
Picture; Truth, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the Wool Shop, circa 1980s, from the Lloyd Collection
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