50 High Street
Photos of shops in Station Road - including Samuels the butcher - which later became the offices of Taylors Services.
The present red-brick shop was built on the site of charming cottages about 1900. In 1911, the occupier was the Premier Meat Company, so its use as a butchers seems to have been established by then. The other reported occupations as an unemployment office and, in 1920, as a wet fish shop run by the licensee of the Railway Inn are in some doubt.
Information as to the use as a butcher's shop came from John West, who provided this information in 2021 and who was born in 1926. His father, Ted, was renting the shop at 50 High Street, trading as WEST BROTHERS as shown in the photo on record 1243, probably taken around late 1920s/early 1930s and before Samuels moved there in 1936. The shop was rented from Ebenezer Stanley. Ted West moved the business across to 2 Station Road, uphill of 48 High Street, in 1936 when Samuels the butchers took over 50 High Street which they ran until 2000. It is now (2018) Taylors building business. Initially Ted ran the shop in Station Road until the late 1950s, then John West took over until about1960/61, before selling up and setting up a new shop in Horspath.
Photo from 2000 showing Clarke's and Rose's fish and chip shop (in 2020 Mario's) in Station Road. The dwelling, 1 Station Road, used to be called Harbour Cottage and it had an outside privy which has since become part of Taylor's yard. The old maps show this name and, in 1910, this was shown as 616 owned by John Fowler, occupied by Henry Nelms. The significance of the name is unknown.