Stanstead Abbotts Local History Society

LAWRENCES SHOP AND VINEGAR WAREHOUSE

[The shop is now a house No. 77 High Street]

“The Lawrences had that house by the river. They had their shop there, sold coal and lots of odd things like pet food. They had big signs outside, they have all gone now. That wharf on the river was for barges for the vinegar place that used to be just by the river. Later it was just for storing the Lawrence’s corn and coal. That was just where the church is now.”

[At the time Mrs Bright was talking a Roman Catholic Church occupied the site of the vinegar warehouse, later taken down and replaced by houses]

Lawrence’s shop appears on the left with the large enamel sign advertising dog food. To the right is the Rose and Crown public house with Mrs Griffins shop beyond it. The archway was the entrance to the riverside wharf at the time

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER

[Mrs Bright had not got much to say about the river but did say the new bridge was a big improvement on the old one. She did not know much about the refreshment hut in the station car park other than it used to have a large silver water boiler inside. She did not like the new barrier type gates at the level crossing and called them continental gates. She did not think doing away with the old wicket gates for pedestrians was a good idea and wondered how someone her age was expected to use those horrible concrete steps on the footbridge]

“There was that big old house on Hoddesdon Corner; where the petrol station is next to the Crown. The row of villas goes right up to the station but that first one leans a bit.” The station garage used to just be a small place with the railway cottages up to the station, where the petrol pumps are now” [The garage by the station closed when the bypass opened]

“The road down to the paint works used to be just a track down to the nurseries until Woods Talbot Works arrived. Next you have that row of houses up to the Fisherman. Inside they are back to front houses. The Jolly Fisherman used to be the Railway Tavern it changed its name sometime after the war [1950] Next to it was a house which went with the Riverside Maltings. Used to be Juppses then Page’s from Ware; it’s some sort of warehouse now isn’t it?”

RIVER BRIDGE TO THE CHEMISTS

“Down along the river there’s Riverside Cottages. Jack knew Archie Miller the otter man, he lived down there; had his own coffin for years and years”

“By the bridge were two cottages right by the river. They used to collect the toll for the bridge right outside there. I think the man who collected the tolls lived in one of those cottages. I don’t remember a toll being collected; before my time. The Rose and Crown came next after the archway down to the wharf. Mr Wheeler was there when I got here. Next door coming this way was Griffin’s shop, a newsagents and that’s where we went to book our places on the coach to the seaside. Then a long line of houses, right on the pavement, all the way to Sid Atkins the chemist. His garden stretched all the way down to the terraced houses in South Street and had trees and a great big wooden shed in it. Down the bottom of South Street was Hankins Garage for all his lorries. Started before the war but very small. Got ever so busy after the war; I think they had a government grant or something to get bigger. There wasn't any boatyard either till just after the war.”