Postcards of Dorchester - The High Street

Card 15. MUSEUM, St PETERS & TOWN HAll 1912        [Return to Card 15]

I have already spoken about the museum above. The railway reached Dorchester in 1847 and the following year the 'Town Hall' was rebuilt this time leaving a space for the road to North square between itself and St Peters Church. Like the old, the new building was open underneath to accommodate market stalls. The distinctive clock tower that features in so many cards about Dorchester was added in 1862. Note the gas street lamp in front of the Museum and the gas lamps hanging from the shop fronts on the right. The following Card (16) is taken slightly further on where it is easier to see the turn right into 'Cornhill' in front of Riglar's the Tobacconists.

The building on the immediate left has a sign over the top for 'WRIGHT & SON'. In 1896 this was the premises of WRIGHT Gideon & Sons who were grocers and provision merchants and listed in the street directories as being at 19 High East Street. The building can be easily seen on google earth and still (2009) has the three sash windows on the top level and the three full length windows underneath that open vertically. Gideon Wright (1821-1900) was baptised in All Saints Dorchester on 8th June 1821 the son of John & Elizabeth Wright. He trained to become a cordwainer journeyman and married Elizabeth (born circa 1814 in Weymouth) in 1841 and they had a son Gideon Denner Wright born at 16/17 Grove buildings in Fordington in 1844 (GRO Dec 1844 Ref 8/36). The family were still at Grove buildings in 1851 and 1861 but by then Gideon was being described as a master Grocer, assisted by his only child Gideon junior then aged 16. Their son married last qtr of 1869 to a Susannah Jane Riggs from Dewlish Dorset and was running his own grocers business in Trinity Street in 1871 when he was also recorded as being a local Wesleyan preacher. By 1881 Gideon and Elizabeth had moved the business to 19 High East Street where it still was when this picture was taken in 1896. By 1881 their son had moved his business from Trinity Street to number 40 South Street where he was in residence with his wife and 9 of his children. In the June qtr 1886 Gideon's wife Elizabeth Wright died at the age of 79. He remarried at the age of 68 in the Dec qtr of 1889 in Croydon to a Mary Ann Battiscombe a native of Chelsea in Middlesex (b circa 1826) before Gideon himself died on 25th June 1900 at the age of 79 leaving an estate of £975. In 1901 Mary as a widow was running the shop at 19 High East street and his son Gideon Denner Wright the shop at 40 South Street. Mary Ann died in Dorchester on 25th Jan 1913. By 1915 the business as G Wright and son was still at 19 High East street but Gideon is listed as a private residence at Heath View in Maumbury Way. Gideon died on 27th January 1919 aged 74 leaving an estate of £7,920. His wife Susannah moved to live at Heathview in Monmouth Road in Dorchester where she died on 12th December 1931 aged 85.

The building on the immediate right of the picture is 'J GOLDIE Ltd' wine, spirit, ale & porter merchants, at 36 High East street. This is now called 'The Borough Arms" and it had a new landlord Rick Green who took over from the previous licencee Frank Thompson in June 2009. The shop with the awning is 35 High East street and called 'Bailey & Thorpe' a drapers and outfitters, and is now 'Woods' the furniture store. The next 3 storey building with five arched windows on the upper two stories was the 'Wiltshire and Dorset Banking Co Ltd ' whose manager was John Millard Lush and today is also part of Woods furniture store and although not visible in the picture stands on the corner of the very narrow Friary lane which runs off north from High East Street at this point. Although difficult to see there are then 3 georgian buildings before the distinctive bay windows of the 'Kings Arms Hotel'. These were Alfred Herbert Evans the chemist and druggest (now Fordingtons Furnishings vacant in 2009); Stickland and Sons the hairdressers and tobacconists at number 32 High East street (now the China Express takeaway) and Charles Parsons the grocers, tea dealer, & provision merchant, who was also an agent to the British Equitable Insurance Co (now the Empire Kebabs and Pizzas shop). For the Kings Arms see card 24 below.

The 'Kings Arms' was built in 1720 and is located at number 30 High East Street, It can be seen in Card 5 further down the street from St Peters Church and the Corn Exchange (Where High West Street becomes High East street). It boasts that many monarchs & celebrities have stayed there including King George IV and Queen Victoria. It was always described as an Inn and posting house. From street directories we know many of the proprietors names for example Francis OLIVER was the Inn keeper prior to 1830 up to 1852 when William MANLEY took over. George FROST was there prior to 1871 until the mid 1880's when Harry Stone FROST appears until DG BILHAM in 1895. It was the earliest building in the town to have electric lighting (1889) which it obtained from a private supply powered by the steam engines in the Aerated Waterworks (making minerals) at the back of the hotel.

The first shop with the very dark sign hanging outside is 23 High East Street, the premises of the printers Henry LING who have been there since 1870. In street directories they were described as "printers, booksellers, agents for ordnance maps, stationers and publishers. Today (2011) the downstairs is a travel agents called 'Nichol World Travel' but the administration offices of Henry Ling still occupy upstairs with a modern production unit on the edge of town.

The next building at 22 High East Street has a clearer sign outside for the Dorset School of Domestic Economy & Cookery. In 1905 it was educating 20 girls for ¾ of the year but now is the home of the Housing Advice Centre.