Graham & Fishers

High Street c1900
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

The building nearest the camera on the right is (was) Graham and Fishers - founded by my great-grandfather Tom. His sons Alg (my grandfather) and Spencer worked in the business all their lives, and my father Douglas worked there until 1966. His cousin Richard also spent some time in 'the Shop' before setting up his own business further along the High Street.
The scene in the photo is actually very much as I remember it in my early childhood in the fifties, but it changed a good deal in the next 10 or fifteen years.
My parents and I had some rooms in the building, courtesy of my gt grandmother, Isabel (Bel), about 1948 - 50, and the window over the front door was that to my bedroom.
Later we lived in the cottage at the bottom of the yard, on Railway Lane. The main building had originally been one of the town's two coaching inns, and our cottage was then the pub or tap for the ostlers etc. In the later C19th, 36 High Street became a rope factory.
I would be very interested to know more of the exact date and provenance of the photo. Tom Graham first set up, with partner Mr. Fisher, in Victoria Street, and the family are not at 36 High Street in the 1901 census. I suspect the photo actually dates from between 1905 and 1910.