This geocache takes you to the centre of Swadlincote High Street and back in time to 1901. The High Street in the 1901 census comprised of ‘The Nag’s Head’ public house and Lloyds Bank, along with six shops. These included Mrs Ellen Walker’s chemists and druggists, the Post Office (some of the shop was sub-let to a dentist), Poyser’s shop, Henry Stevens, clothier, J.B. Litherland, tobacconist and hairdresser (established 1888), and Henry Whitefield, newsagent. The south side of High Street had only a few buildings in 1901.
Further down High Street another six buildings were to be found, but the 1901 census lists no inhabitants. The space in between the shops and these buildings was a considerable stretch of land, which for many years was used as allotments before in-fill development began in the 1920s. Further down the High Street towards the Delph, at No.19, was Boots the Chemist, and Ben Goodhead, bakery, occupied nos. 17 and 19. The Stanhope Arms public house was rebuilt in 1898. Today this building is a bookmaker’s.
Interestingly, over a hundred years ago the people of Swadlincote’s appetite for meat was high, enabling several butchers to trade on the High Street at the same time without causing detrimental competition . Roberts and Birch, Martin’s and Fairbrother’s all traded at the same time, and a hundred yards down the High Street was Baxter’s Butcher’s too. On the opposite side of street were Harold Collier’s (still present) and a branch of Dewhurst the butchers.
Other featured shops on the High Street included Elizabeth James’ sweet shop, Hayward (later Wright’s) saddlery and leather goods, a hatter’s and George Walton’s Fried Fish and Chip Shop and the London Central Meat Company, along with the London City and Midland Bank. Next to the bank, in 1901 there was an area of waste ground called ‘Wilson’s Ground’ which was occupied by a travelling trader, a shooting gallery attendant and a steam horse proprietor.
Look today and you can still see a relic of the historic High Street, a large clock marked ‘Dinnis’ protruding from the wall above the Yum Yum shop. A reminder of the buildings past, many people kept their time from this clock and Henry Dinnis himself was responsible for winding up the Town Hall clock on the Delph on a weekly basis. John Dinnis started his jewellery and watch repair business in 1889, also offering an optician’s service in the early days of the business. The shop was owned by three generations of the Dinnis family before it closed finally, in 2006, after more than a century of business in Swadlincote.
The name ‘Salt Bros.’, another survival from Swadlincote’s shopping glory days, remains set in mosaic floor tiles outside the former shop’s entrance. In the 1890s, brothers Enoch, Joseph and Hezekiah opened their first shop in Swadlincote on the High Street. Eventually, this extended to three stores which included a haberdashery and menswear shops and, in the late 1920s, a hardware store. Local families relied on Salt’s to provide most of their household needs and it was thought of as ‘Swadlincote’s very own department store’. Indeed, much of the crockery sold by Salt’s, such as T.G. Green’s pottery, was locally made. Workmen from local industries, including miners, often bought their boots from the store. Salt Brothers’ finally closed all its shops in 1982, once again, as with Dinnis’, after almost a century of trading.
Tweezers and pencil required for this geocache.