Smorthwaite Chemist.

A Memory of Liphook.

My uncle (PW Brooker) was manager of Smorthwaites chemists for many years in the mid 1900's. Mr Smorthwaite himself was a very old man... I remember meeting him once in the back of the shop where my aunt and others dispensed medicines. This photo suggests that originally the shop was on the corner of the Square( later occupied by Moss Brothers) and Haslemere road, whereas I knew it to be further back in the square directly opposite the Anchor tree.

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Added 11 October 2013

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Denis, nothing much has changed thankfully. That shop is now an estate agents, sadely the big clock above has never been repaired.
I remember having to squeeze around that corner with my pram as the lorries came thundering through the village, thank goodness for the A3 diversion.
Opposite, on the left, remains the bank, next to that was the doctors surgery, now a ladies boutique on the site.

By anitapud on Tue Aug 12th 2014, at 3:28 am

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I'd forgotten about that clock! So it's still there above the shop front? I see it in one of the photographs. As you say the square hasn't changed much except for the traffic. Might get back one day to have a look round.

By Denis Payne on Tue Aug 12th 2014, at 6:05 pm

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It's amazing how things in this photo have not changed. The anchor tree is still there, but has a wall built around it, the entrance to the anchor is still the same. The pharmacy building is exactly the same (minus the light above the doorway). There's the addition of a mini roundabout in the road the but wow this pic is beautiful

By whittle.becky on Thu Jan 8th 2015, at 12:00 am

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As a grandson of the manager of Smorthwaite's, I also do not remember the shop being at the end of those buildings on the square. In the 1940s that was an estate agents, then there was the jeweler's shop of Fred Payne, and uncle if I remember correctly, of Denis Payne, then my grandparents house, then the chemist's shop, and then a grocers. I remember being taken up onto the flat roof of Smorthwaite's to watch the VJ parade 74 years ago this month.

By martyjohnw on Mon Aug 5th 2019, at 6:16 pm

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I am spending some of my lockdown time wandering through my family tree, and have arrived at Liphook. Percy Brooker's wife, Jenny (nee Martin) was the third cousin of my grandmother Clara Martin. The Martins were concentrated around the Tonbridge/Sevenoaks area - it's refreshing to find one that flew the coop! Don't think I've ever been to Liphook - it looks delightful.

By Penelope J Hawkins on Sat Aug 15th 2020, at 10:11 pm

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There was also a tunnel from the basement of Smorthwaites under the Portsmoth Road to the Anchor Inn. I've seen the entrance, but it was supposedly blocked by then at the other end so never went through it.

By martyjohnw on Thu Aug 20th 2020, at 3:48 am

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The Brookers were concentrated around the Sevenoaks area, my motherss family. Auntie Jane (Jenny) as we knew her had a brother in Liphook who had an upholsterers business down by Liphook station, think his name was Albert.

By Denis Payne on Thu Aug 20th 2020, at 9:08 am

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Didn't know that. Went down into the cellar a few times but never explored it, it was a large room as I recall.

By Denis Payne on Thu Aug 20th 2020, at 9:10 am

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Another store area connecting door went through into Uncle Fred's jewellers shop next door.

By Denis Payne on Thu Aug 20th 2020, at 9:13 am

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