Bridge Street c1912

The little girl buying ice cream is Ethel Edwards.

In this view looking north, in the distance, is the mill chimney of 1854, which was the tallest in the country when it was built. With a 26 feet wide diameter at the base, it had foundations sunk 21 feet down below the surface, and needed 300,000 bricks. It was topped with a cast iron cap which added 13 feet to the height, bringing it up to 212 feet 8 inches from foundations to summit. Behind the chimney is the newly-completed East Mill, completed in the summer of 1912 and officially opened in July 1913.

On the left are Maria Mee’s fishmongers and Thomas Henry Fletcher’s butchers. Beyond them are the gardens of the mill-worker’s cottages on Berkin’s Court, fronting on to Bridge Street. Further down the street, with a large advertisement on the gable end, is Alton’s – a high-end grocer which stocked ‘treats’ for Christmas and other special occasions. Alton’s opened in 1889 and was still operating after the Second World War.

On the right is the Lion Hotel, originally the Red Lion, a turnpike inn with stables which had just been converted to garages. The earliest reference to the Red Lion names John Whitaker as landlord in 1784, when the building was thatched. It was still referred to as ‘The Red Lion’ as late as 1899 in court cases (two men were accused of being drunk and disorderly), although signage on the gable (obscured here by trees) clearly states it as The Lion Hotel by 1888.

The walled garden to the Lion Hotel was still intact when this photograph was taken. It was later removed for the creation of a public garage.