15 Regent Road when trading as a Maid Marian Food Store run by Mick and Jan Smith from 1982-97

This shop was built in 1963 and traded throughout its history as a general store selling confectionery, groceries, greengroceries, tobacco and general household goods. Its first owner in 1963 was John Wiles; by 1975 the owner was John Speers and by 1980 it was owned by Geoff and Pamela Butlin. Mick Smith purchased the shop in 1982 and traded until 1997, when the shop was closed and converted to residential use. It was built on the site of a former market garden owned by Harry Cole who lived in nearby Victoria Street . It consisted of two large greenhouses, pigsties, a wooden hut from which he traded and also some land in the allotments opposite. He was in business from the late 1920s until the middle of the 1950s.

In William Street in the 1920s there was an electrical engineering business owned by A J Tarrant and A E Streather which included electrical work at people’s homes. In 1928 the partnership was dissolved and by 1931 the company appeared as Johnson and Wright with A J Tarrant as manager; there is no record of this business after this date. A E (Ted) Streather worked on his own and at some point he became the agent for the Electricity Company. From the 1920s to the 1950s he could be seen riding around the town on his carrier bicycle with a large container box attached to the front containing his tools, electrical fittings and cables to work in people’s homes. He still lived in William Street but his base was the electrical office in Duke Street next to the Methodist Church.

A present day view of Glebe Stores.

2 Glebe Road (Shop 2)

"Joyce" who served in Dennis Miller's shop in the late 50s/early 60s

Also in this area, Mrs. Ruth Howlett had a drapers/dress shop in her front room at 54 Station Road from about 1928 until 1936. In the 1930s Sarah Bully also lived at this address and sold sweets. At number 46 Cyril Bates repaired boots and shoes and at number 42 first Mrs. Stockton and then Mrs. Keech also sold sweets from the front room. Henry Wade ran his cobblers business repairing boots and shoes from the rear of his house at 24 Station Road from about 1920 until the late 1940s. 

The first known owner this shop, almost certainly from it being built in the 1890s,was George Fletcher Snr., In the 1901 census he was a potato dealer but the 1911 census shows him as a general labourer. However, by1918 it was listed as a fish and chip shop, by now run by his son, also named George, and his wife. The Fletcher family ran this shop until at least 1956 and possibly later. In 1958, A & A Reeves were trading there as ‘The Fish Saloon’. Jim Smith was the next owner (succeeded by his son) from about 1960 until about the end of the 1970s.

For a time at the beginning of the 1970s a J Marr from Grimsby brought fresh fish from the docks and sold it here as wet fish in the mornings. He would also have supplied the fish for Jim when he opened for fried fish and chips in the afternoons and evenings. During the 1980s it became a Chinese fast food take-away. Wongs is the current trader (2007), supplying Cantonese and Chinese food.

18 Station Road (Shop 5)

Walter "Curly" Pearson Pearson's Garage, also known as the Excelsior Garage, in the late 1950s before its sale to Harry Robinson. Look carefully and you will see Curley Pearson standing towards the left of the picture Robinson's Garage pictured in the 1960's, the home of the Robinson Triton motorcycle. The cottages at the rear have long since been demolished

In 1960 the business was taken over by Harry Robinson dealing in sales and repairs of cars and motorcycles. His son, Tony, who took over from him also had a motorcycle racing team which, with Mick Bass, raced its own machines.  Called the Robinson Triton, they were constructed using a Norton frame and a Triumph engine. The Robinsons occupied the premises until 25^th February 1985.

The next owner was Albis Riccioni who traded in used cars until 1996. The current owner (2015) is his brother Faust Riccioni, trading as Latimer Equipment Services Ltd. The business is the sale, repair and hire of tools and machinery for garden, home and business use.

47 Kettering Road (Shop 6)

Norton's bakers & confectioners in the 1930s. When the entrance to Station Road was later widened, the shop's corner was drastically altered. The corner was removed, taken back about five metres, and the building got its present frontage This c1938 picture shows the Pateman's sign over the door but still with the 'Norton's Corner' sign on the sun blind

William Norton opened this shop in 1884. He was a baker trading in bread, confectionery, cooked meats, potted meat and sausages - all made on the premises – and groceries. By 1901 his son Frederick and wife Emily had taken over and the premises became known as ‘Norton’s Corner’. Frederick combined the bakery business with being a cab proprietor and he also had a contract with the parish council to supply a horse to pull the fire engine when required. In 1934 the business passed to Frederick ’s son Tom and his wife Bertha, who traded there until the late 1930s. The next owners were Percy and Mabel Pateman who, in about 1939, substantially altered the building and rebuilt further back from the road. By this time the baking and other cooking would have ceased and it became a normal grocery and confectionery shop also selling alcohol. The Patemans were there until about 1960. All subsequent traders then used “Patemans” as their trading name, selling the same types of goods. These traders were Lillian Merton (1961-1963); Albis and Mary Riccioni (1964); Ronald and Marjorie Palmer (1965 until about 1970); Maurice and Bertha Wiles (from about 1970 until 1980); Michael and Marion Cotton (1980-1994) and Alan and Carol Moses (1995-1997). Trading ceased in 1997 and the property was converted for residential use.

Joseph Wallis seen here with his wife, Sarah Ann, outside 11 Kettering Road c1920.

The following three premises (Shops 7–9) consisted of two shops, with a bakery between them, possibly dating from the end of the 19th century.

The Northampton Mercury dated 6th June 1904 carried this as part of notice of a sale to be held at the Waggon & Horses on 16th June:

Lot 2.- All those FIVE DWELLING HOUSES, situate on the west side of Kettering-road, Burton Latimer, consisting of a dwelling house, bake-house, and other outbuildings, in the occupation of Mr. G. Smith, baker; three dwelling houses adjoining with gardens and appurtenances at the rear, in the several occupations of Messrs. Bird, Ingram, and Andrews; and a dwelling house with shop, garden, and outbuildings, now in the occupation of Burton Latimer Co-operative Society, the whole producing a gross rental of £58 6s. 0d. Per annum.

The bakehouse referred to in the sale notice is obviously 9 Kettering Road (Shop 8 below) but whether the shop "in the occupation of Burton Latimer Co-operative Society" is Shop 7 or Shop 9 is still in doubt and until further information is uncovered will remain so.

11 Kettering Road (Shop 7)
The Co-op may have been its first tenants (see above) but Joseph and Sarah Ann Wallis were the first known occupants of this fish and chip shop, which also sold fruit and vegetables, from about 1910 until the end of the 1930s. Its use as a shop had ceased by the beginning of WW2 and it was demolished in 1961 together with all its neighbours.

9 Kettering Road (Shop 8)

A view of Kettering Road, looking north, with Pownall's Bakery arrowed. On the right of the picture is 2 Kettering Road (shop 11).

This property was a bakery approached through a covered way, just visible in the photograph.

The advert for Lot 2 in a 1904 property sale includes "on the west side of Kettering-road " ..... "a dwellinghouse, bakehouse and other outbuildings in the occupation of Mr. G. Smith, baker." George F. Smith had been a baker employed by Fred Norton and later moved to a bakehouse in Piggott's Lane. Its next occupant, from 1907, was Robert Banks (Bobby) Pownall who baked bread and delivered it around the town with a horse and cart.  

On his retirement in 1945 the business was taken over by an employee Dennis Cockayne who traded until the late 1950s, still with a horse and cart.

The property was demolished in 1961.

There was then a change of trade. Stan Elderkin sold and repaired radios and cycles in 1937; for a short time from 1938 Ernie Clarke’s wife ran it as a drapery shop until Ernie turned it back into a radio shop and acquired the agency for Orpheus Radios, manufactured in Kettering. He was there until 1939. From the early 1940s until the beginning of the 1950s it again became a drapery shop run by a Mrs Watts. It then became a bookmakers, or “turf accountant”, run by a Mr E Watts under the name “Watsco”. His relationship to his predecessor, if any, is not known. By the end of the 1950s it had been taken over by another “bookie”, Reg Northern, until demolition of the property in 1961.

Fifty years' worth of change: Left - the 1956 Carnival Queen's float passes Watts' shop. Right - The Palmichael Restaurant in 2007

After completion of work to widen Kettering Road in the early 1960s Peter Toseland, who already ran his business from 33 High St, had a new shop built on this site. Named the Radiant Paint Company, he sold antiques in the front of the shop and decorating materials from a room at the rear and lived in a flat on the first floor. When Peter retired in 1981 he sold the shop to Vince and Angela Palmiero. The new owners converted the shop into a restaurant, The Palmichael, which opened in October of that year, serving English and Italian meals. It remains in 2007 still trading under the same name, with the same owners.

6 Kettering Road (Shop 10)

The former shop at 6 Kettering Road, known by most local people as Gilby's Off-licence, is now a private house. Note the lintels of the former windows on the first floor.

Probably some of the first occupants of these premises were members of the Glover family, starting with Joseph Glover, a carpenter, first mention of whom is found in 1734, right through to John Glover a wheelwright in 1849. After the Glovers left, part of the premises (which were actually owned by a Mrs. Ann Whitworth) were converted to a shop and occupied by William Day, described in Kelly’s Directory of 1862 as Joiner & Builder and Linen & Woollen Draper. This is borne out by the 1861 census which gives his occupation as “Carpenter” and his wife’s as “Dressmaker”. After William Day’s departure, part of the premises are thought to have been occupied by Mary Ann Miller, a dressmaker, until 1874 when Henry Ayres is thought to have become a tenant and in subsequent directories is described as butcher, grocer, shopkeeper, beer retailer and tea dealer. He eventually purchased the property in 1883 from Mrs Whitworth and stayed there until he sold it to a brewery and retired in 1897. His son Albert continued as tenant until 1906 when the tenancy was taken over by George William Downing.  The shop was probably looked after by his wife Keziah Downing because in the early years he is also listed as a plumber. In the 1920s, the large first floor outbuilding at the rear with access from Bakehouse Lane was let to one of the town’s shoe factories as a closing room.

George Downing stayed there until Arthur Gilby became tenant in 1937, by which time the premises were owned by Phipps Breweries. Major renovations were carried out at this time as it was in poor condition. Arthur Gilby purchased this property and business in 1970 from the then owners, Watney’s Brewery. Arthur’s son Roy took over the business in 1972 when his father retired although Arthur and his wife continued to live there. The business closed on 25^th April 1995 when Roy retired and it became his private residence until his death in 2008.

For further photos, see the Shops Photogallery

2 Kettering Road (Shop 11)

The building on the corner of Kettering Road and Bakehouse lane still shows many signs of having been a shop. See also the image for Shop 8.

The purchaser, in October 1951, was George Reader and it became a radio and television shop until 1961. It was then let to Reg Northern, the bookmaker who had moved from across the road when No.1 Kettering Road was demolished. Reg ran his bookmaking business from there until 1971. George Reader then sold it to Barry Wilson who did extensive renovations and opened it as an antique shop. In 1973 it was sold to Arthur and Lavina Tyrrell and it became a modern ladies dress shop named ‘Aphrodisiac’. It was sold to Sarah Maziak in November 1975 and continued as ‘Sarah’s Ladies Fashions’ including some bridal wear; it was closed in 1992 and became a private residence.

2 Bakehouse Lane (Shop 12)

This very small shop was about half way between Kettering Road and Church Street. The only known owner was Bob West. He had it, certainly from the 1940s, until about 1970. He sold shoes which were rejects and samples which he bought from the local factories. The samples would consist of only one shoe, which he would keep until he obtained another for the other foot which was a close match. He would then sell them as a pair. A lot would have been work shoes so a perfect match would not have been important. He also took bets on horse racing. When he retired it became vacant for a while but was subsequently converted into a small bungalow; some of the original walls can still be seen.

About 20 yards further down the lane is Sharps Barbers. This gent’s hairdressers shop was built by Robin Sharp in 1987. Attached to it was a small café which traded for a short time as The Old Tea Shop before being closed and converted to a residential flat. The hairdressing shop is still trading in 2007, now run by Robin’s son, Wayne.

45 Church Street as it is today

The first known owner of this shop from about 1850 was Joseph Moore who directories describe at the time as a grocer and lace maker. The house next door to the left was the first Burton Latimer Post Office. Thomas Burnaby appears in a 1854 directory as Postmaster. Joseph Moore subsequently became postmaster and was there until about 1892. The shop then became a butcher’s shop, owned by Richard Albert Hobson, until about 1904. The Capps family purchased the business in about 1905. A directory entry in 1906 gives it as James Capps and Son butchers and in 1914 as James Capps and Sons butchers. This indicates that James Capps senior, a bricklayer, was involved in the business, possibly buying the shops for his family or perhaps even becoming a butcher himself. James junior appears in the 1901 census, aged 23, as a butcher’s apprentice and most likely worked at this shop with Richard Albert Hobson. James’s brother Fred was also a butcher and they had a shop in Duke Street (probably no.3 but possibly no.5), where their sister Margery also worked in the business. It is not known which shop each ran as both Fred and James appear in trade directories as butchers but, as is common in directories at this time, no addresses are given.

Fred Capps worked in the business until 1915 then joined the armed forces during WW1. After the war Fred and his family moved to Lincolnshire where he worked for Craven’s Butcher’s in Sleaford. By the middle of the 1920s they had returned to Kettering where he was employed by Kettering Co-operative Society, still as a butcher. He never returned to the shop in Burton Latimer where brother James continued as a butcher until 1928; the directories list him as a butcher until 1915 and after that as a shopkeeper so it is possible he may have changed the business to a grocery sometime during this period, but this is unconfirmed. In 1928 he moved a few doors to number 57 to take over the bakery from the Talbutt family.

The shop was then taken over as a grocery and sweet shop by Harry and Rosie Carvell who traded from there until about 1939 and susequently from their home at 43 Bakehouse Lane, one of the Scott’s Charity Cottages. Harry died in May 1944 aged 74. Rosie continued the business and traded from her cottage; she also had a small shed in which she kept stock such as bottles of lemonade and grew vegetables in her garden to sell. The last trade directory entry is from 1958 so she may have traded here almost up to her death in November of that year, aged 86. The shop was closed when she left in 1939; it was never used again as a shop and became derelict. It was later combined with the houses on either side to become one private residence. In 2007 there is still a postbox in the wall between the pavement and the road in front of this property, the only remaining reminder that there was once a Post Office there.

This was a bakery. The first known owner was George Talbutt from 1840. He was succeeded in the business by his son James from the late 1800s and then, after his death in 1916, by James’s wife Mary until 1928.

James and Alice Capps purchased the business and it continued as a bakery; they also sold pig and poultry food.

James’s son Len started work at the bakery in 1933 when he left school at the age of 14. After service in the armed forces during WW2 Len returned to the bakery and remained there until its closure in 1967/8.

It was demolished later and all that there is in 2007 is a stone wall.

16 Church Street (Shop 15)

16 Church Street, now a private residence

The owners from 1947 were Colin and Joan Garlick. The business continued until the 1980s when it was finally closed and the premises became a private residence. Colin Garlick worked for Stan Firmin in his motor business from the late 1960s. He was sales manager in Stan’s showroom until 1976. When Stan sold the business he started his own motor business in buildings in the yard next to his shop with Cliff, who had been Stan’s mechanic until the first half of the 1980s. The shop was run by Joan during this time.

32 Cranford Road, another former shop now converted to residential use

32 Cranford Road (Shop 16)

This shop was at the end of Britannia Cottages on the corner of Bird Street . The first known owners were George and Ellen Talbutt who ran it as a grocery shop from about 1914 until 1936. William Talbutt and his sister Norah ran the small family farm to the rear of Bird Street , and also sold milk around the town. Norah Talbutt lived in the residential part of the property until the early 1980s.

Since the Talbutts, it has had a number of owners who have alternated from a small grocery and general store to a private house. Some of the names include Sharp, Dickens (at that time known as ‘Dickie’s Stores’) and Almond/Ward. By 2007 it was once more residential.

For further photos, see the Shops Photogallery

1 High Street (Shop 17)

1 High Street in about 1935 The shop was being run by Arthur John Wittering

John died in 1887. Elizabeth married George Fox in 1889 and they continued to run the grocery business together. George Fox died about 1900 and Elizabeth continued until about the time the new Co-op opened. By 1915 Arthur John Wittering, one of Elizabeth’s children by her first marriage, had the whole building, although the acquisition by the family of the front of the building was probably earlier than this as the date the Co-op vacated the premises is unknown. It was turned into a furniture and hardware business. Malin Dams delivered goods during the early years of the business with his horse and cart around the town and to surrounding villages. After this A. J. Wittering was there until the late 1940s. It was then bought by the Co-op and became their Hardware Department and part of the Co-op department store at the end of the 1960s.                                                                 

From about 1980 this shop was partitioned off from the rest of the Co-op and also divided into two parts (as it is thought to have been in the 19^th century) and sub let. It is interesting to note that that it was never let to any trader that competed with the Co-op. The front shop became for a short time a fishing tackle shop trading as B P Tackle and then Sporting Nook supplying golf goods and equipment, believed to be the last occupier of this part of the building. The rear part of the shop was let to Robin Sharp who had a door into Bakehouse Lane . He traded as a gents’ hairdresser and he also later rented the first floor part of the building where he sold antiques and second hand goods, trading as Latimer Bargains. He also sold fishing tackle from part of his hairdressing shop. He was there until about 1987 and then moved to his new hairdressing shop which he had built further down the lane (see Shop 12). These were the last traders in this shop and it was demolished along with the rest of the Co-op in 1990.

5 High Street, in the great blizzard of 1916

5 High Street (Shop 18)

11 High Street (Shop 19)

This shop was a saddlers and collar makers, making and selling all types of leather harness used with horses; from the 1870s, the owner was Samuel Loveday with his wife Amelia. Sometime in the 1880s the business was taken over by Charles Loveday, described as a harness maker and who came from Islip. He is thought to have been a brother or cousin of Samuel. He had a son also named Charles who joined the business on leaving school at the beginning of the 20^th century. They traded as Charles Loveday and Son. The business continued, but by the end of the 1920s, Will Loveday, who worked for them, was unemployed. He was born at Gretton, the same village as Charles senior but their exact relationship is unknown. This seems to indicate that the business was in decline, which could have been caused by the reduction in the use of working horses due to increased mechanization and also by the depression of the 1920s. The business continued to appear in the trade directories until 1935. The shop was then demolished along with two cottages and the new Co-op Drapery Department was built and opened on the Saturday, February 29^th 1936. This remained part of the Co-op until it was all demolished in 1990.

Two views of Loveday's shop in the early part of the last century: Left - a view towards Bakehouse Lane corner in about 1910. Right - an aerial view from 1923

Before the Co-op arrived: Eben Taylor stands at the door of his shop in about 1905

15 High Street (Shop 20)

23 High Street (Shop 21)

The shop in 2007

This continued until the end of the 1980s when it was sold, rather than being demolished with the rest of the Co-op.

The first occupiers were Toller Hales and Collcutt, Solicitors, followed by a Dentist and then an Orthodontist.

The current occupiers in 2007 are Peachey-Loak, Estate Agents and Surveyors.

About 70 years ago, a parade passes the recently-built Co-op butchers

This shop was built by the Co-op in 1929 on the left corner of Pioneer Avenue and the High Street and opened as the new Co-op butchers, which it remained until the end of the 1980s. On the closure of the Co-op it was sold and subsequently had several occupiers. Parkhouse and Partners, Estate Agents, were one of the early ones. It was also divided into two shops and its occupiers included offices for the car sales business on the opposite corner run by Nigel Lewis. An electrical contractor Drage Electrics also had half of this shop. Currently in 2007 it is a take away pizza shop.

27 High Street - Osborne House (Shop 23)

This was only known to be a shop in the middle of the 18^th century. Robert Capps came from Brigstock and set up a butchers shop here in about 1761.

For the full story of Osborne House, click here.

Other shops

Towards the top of Pioneer Avenue, Mrs. Waterfield at number 82 had a grocery shop in her front room in the 1930s and possibly into the 1940s.

In 2009 a shop selling gifts, interiors and collectables was set up at 1 Spring Gardens and named The Secret Door.

Church Street Autos

This business, owned by Stan Firmin, started selling used cars in the 1950s and was situated in outbuildings belonging to the Church in the grounds of the rectory. In about 1960 he moved to premises in Rosebery Street previously owned by Smiths Transport Services where, besides selling second-hand cars he became a Hillman, Commer and Vauxhall dealer. He traded there until later in the 1960s. He then purchased the Cleveland Petrol Station in Kettering Road , previously Haynes’ garage. Prior to this the premises were used by Sid Coleman, a general engineer, between the two World Wars. Stan Firmin also purchased the vacant plot on the right hand corner of Pioneer Avenue , where he had a car showroom built; here he held Ford and British Leyland agencies and also dealt in used cars. He sold both businesses in 1976 and moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight where he bought a hotel.

The Cleveland Petrol Station was bought by Robin Prescott and was redeveloped into a used car business with offices, showroom, workshop and a large open display area, trading as Prescott Motors. The business is currently (2007) run by Chris Prescott. The Church Street Autos showroom on the corner of Pioneer Avenue was bought by Doug Griffiths. He was there until 1979 when it was taken over by Pole Position Cars. In 1983 it was completely gutted by fire and subsequently demolished. The site was derelict for a time but eventually it was again occupied as a used car business on an open-air site. Afterwards it had several operators and currently, in 2007, is owned by Anthony Singh and Roger Hull, trading as High Street Cars.