NewsSaltashA History of our Saltash OfficeA History of our Saltash Office With grateful thanks to Saltash Community Club and Rachel Ellis, we were delighted to be presented with this fascinating history of the former uses of our offices in Saltash. FORE STREET – PAST & PRESENT. 139 FORE STREET (79 Prior to renumbering)PENGELLY FUNERAL SERVICEA little building with a big history!PRIOR TO WW2Until it was destroyed by bombing in the 1940s blitz, 79 Fore Street was not a shop but a residential house described as having a front entrance hall, large front sitting room, living room, working kitchen, wash-house and outside toilet, with 4 large bedrooms on the first floor and a further smaller bedroom. ????Only a few years old in 1901, the undivided house was shared between three families, each paying rent for rooms – this practice may seem odd today but was commonplace in Saltash at that time. There was no inside toilet or bathroom for the tenants but there was a communal w.c. in the back yard. ????Mother Harriet Herod daughters Violet and Winnifred, sons Russell and Leslie paid for residence of four rooms. ???????? ????????♀️????????????????????♂️????????.Amy Nicholson had use of two rooms with her son Cecil ????????????????. William H Williams, ???????? a labourer at Bull Point had use of two rooms.By 1911 all the families had changed. The house was now let to Thomas Robins a Saltash postman with wife Sarah and sons Harry aged 9, Alfred aged 16 and William aged 21 ????????????????♀️???????????????????????????? who worked as a grocer at Saltash Co-operative, their family used 4 rooms. Two further rooms were rented to Edward Robins and Robert James, both were skilled naval ordnance labourers. ???????????????????????? The remaining 2 rooms were let to widow Emma Clatworthy who lived with her 15 year old adopted son Charles Tremayne who was employed as a hydro-man at the town’s steam laundry. ????????????????The house, still without bathroom or inside toilet was sold by auction in 1923, at that time let to Alfred William Olver as resident sitting tenant. By 1931 Frank and Elanor Brimming had also moved in to share the house with the Olver family.When war broke out in 1939, Alfred Olver was still resident with his wife Beatrice (nee Blake) and daughter Babs, ????????????????♀️???????? they now shared the house with fellow tenant Florence Crocker who was a widow and cleaner at one of the Fore Street banks . ???????? Alfred Olver was born in 1885 and worked as agent & secretary for SE Cornwall Unionist Association. Beatrice was a Watersider born in 1889 at 3 Tamar Street, her father Richard Blake was a fisherman on the river. They married at Saltash in 1912 and had two children, a son George (known as Joss) and a daughter Ruth (known as Babs). ???????????????????????????????????? On the night of Monday 28th April 1941 Saltash was badly blitzed. ???????? Now aged 55 and an air raid warden Alfred was on duty when the bombs fell on Fore Street and beyond, he was actually stood in the doorway of his home as the town was hit. ????????The house was destroyed that night and he was badly injured by the blast, conveyed to St Barnabas hospital Alfred survived the night but died the following day without regaining consciousness. ????. His funeral was held five days later at St Nicholas & St Faith church. It is believed that widow Beatrice lived at 6 Symons Road Saltash until her death in 1975.POST WARAlong with number 79, many other shops and houses in the town were damaged and some were destroyed. Houses at 79 and 80 Fore Street owned by the same person, were both gutted beyond repair. Following their clearance, a temporary (ish!) single storey building was soon erected at number 79, while number 80 remained a bomb site (and an unintended playground!) for much longer.S P & K THOMAS DAIRYAnother Fore Street building suffering the same fate at German hands was number 95 (now Betfred) which had been owned by Sydney Pearce Thomas since 1933 and housed his dairy. ???????? Mr Thomas served in the Royal Tank Regiment during the war, he saw service in North Africa, Northern Italy, France and Belgium. Faced without premises upon his return, he moved his business (which by then was operating from the house of his parents in Essa Road) to the new single-storey shop at number 79, shop assistants at this location included Beryl Solomon and the dairy’s telephone number was Saltash 2281.Very well known in the town, he was community-driven and founded the Saltash Forum. He was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Saltash Tennis Club in addition to the Saltash Old Cornwall Society. A busy bloke! In 1961 he married his Saltash-born assistant Alice Gilbert ❤️ who had worked with him since before the war, their dairy and grocery shop now trading as S.P & A.K Thomas shifted to number 80 in Sept 1966, a purpose-made dairy which he had newly built next door – it’s the building we now know as Foreign Muck.The couple remained in business until they retired in 1972 to 9 St Stephens Road which was known to many as ‘The Pink Cottage’ (it is now white!). Sydney died on 16th June 1979 aged 71, while Alice aged 87 died at St Barnabas hospital in 1998.H.K.WASHBURN JEWELLERSFollowing their move next door in 1966, Mr Thomas let number 79 to Harold Kenneth Washburn. Trading as H.K. Washburn & Son watchmakers and jewellers, the shop also stocked a range of giftware ⏰????.Mr Washburn lived at 14 Home Park Road.The shops at numbers 79 and 80 (old numbering) were purchased by the Davy family when Mr & Mrs Thomas retired in 1972, thus continuing the history that at any one time since the turn of the century, both addresses were always owned by the same person(s), even though they were sold several times. The premises had at first continued to be let to H.K. WashburnLINDENS GIFT SHOPThe single storey shop was then used by Mr Michael Shipp and his wife Juliet who ran a gift shop called Lindens and a small cafe at the back which sold very good cakes! ????☕️Before moving into Fore Street, Lindens was open at Culver Road (where Jeans hairdressers was) and prior to that the couple ran The Milkmaid coffee house which is remembered with fondness by many, it was further down Fore Street roughly opposite Lloyds Bank. Mike was a busy man, he also had a mobile engine-tuning business called Motor Tune. ????????DOMESTIC APPLIANCE The shop was taken over some time in the late 70s/early 80s by the Domestic Appliance Service run by Peter and Pamela Screach and business partner Dennis and Peg Jones. Domestic Appliance Service remained in business in Saltash for a total of thirty years, having moved from smaller premises across the road at Regal Court (where the barbers shop is today). The firm had a very good, user-friendly reputation and were always happy to go above and beyond to help their customers. I remember my mum sending me down to this shop to buy hoover bags.Mr & Mrs Screach lived at Mote Park and maintained their community-focus, being members of the Saltash Round Table and Ladies Circle. They retired in 1994/5 and emigrated to New Zealand just over 20 years ago, happily they are still in touch with the town via this facebook group.PENGELLY FUNERAL SERVICE Pengelly Funeral Service subsequently moved into the premises, having traded until then from an address at the rear of Victoria Road, next to the Brunel car park. The business was formed in 1982 by Peter Pengelly at Landrake and moved to Saltash in 1986. In 2007 the Walter C. Parson Group of funeral directors took over, though the shop name remains unchanged.As well as a large fleet of cars and hearses, Pengelly also offer alternative transports for a funeral. Horse and carriage, motorcycle hearse, landrover hearse, wheel chair access car and even a London bus!!The single-storey nature of the premises, originally thought to be a temporary measure after the war, continues on!❤️ ON A PERSONAL NOTE ❤️Pengelly’s recently dealt with our mothers funeral. I have to say that the service they gave us was superb ⭐️ Ayesha was the person we mainly dealt with and she was compassionate and professional at all times. It was the little things she did that made the difference too. For example: When Ayesha was preparing mum for her funeral, she asked if there was any type of make up mum liked to use. I said that mum never left the house without her bright pink lipstick. ???? When we went to visit mum in the chapel of rest, not only was mum wearing bright pink lipstick, she was grasping the lipstick in one of her hands! It brought a bit of humour to what was the most traumatic thing I’ve ever had to do! The chapel of rest had relaxing music playing. Ayesha asked if I was happy with the music or did I want to change it to something that I thought mum would prefer! After seeing mum, we were invited to go in to the room next door where we could sit and have a cuppa and regain our thoughts. It was just lovely. Ayesha asked us what sort of things mum liked, when making her order of service. We said mum liked pink/purple flowers and hedgehogs ????????. When we saw the completed order of service, we were taken back at how pretty it was. Even the hedgehog was included. It’s all in the attention to detail they give that makes this company outstanding.Thank you again to Andrew Barrett for researching and digging out the photos from Saltash Heritage. Thank you too to Andrew Davy for supplying photos and information about Lindens Gift Shop. Finally thank you to Gary Richardson for all his research in the history of this place too, it’s a time consuming job.
