I recently took a stroll along High Street at the top of Sutton so that I could gaze at the edifices which adorn it.
As is always the case when I am studying old buildings, I thought of the people who lived in them.
As I examined the Three Tuns, I thought of Harry Smith, who was proprietor from 1820 until 1855.
If I had been looking across the road from the Tuns in the late nineteenth century, the shop of R. Oakley would have caught my eye. This was only place to go in Sutton if you believed that essence mustard would put an end to your rheumatism.
Oakley's business extended beyond medicines for the inhabitants - he also offered them for their animals. For the owners of cattle he prepared his 'celebrated foot rot mixture, a never-failing remedy for that troublesome disease'.
He had a range of other compounds for the treatment of dogs and horses; for the latter, he had a very handy concoction for 'purifying the blood, softening the skin and improving the general health and spirits.’
Just along from Oakley's shop was that of Edwin Parry, a baker and confectioner, operating under the business name of Orme & Co. Not everything went according to plan for poor Parry. In t888 a fire on his premises caused £200 worth of damage, not all of it covered by insurance. In 1889 he embezzled by one of his employees; Thomas Hyde was sentenced to three months with hard labour for this offence.
If you wanted to buy fowls on High Street, you could: W.S. Evans sold them for 20s a pair. If you fancied an item stamped with the inscription 'A Present from Sutton Coldfield', you needed only to pop in to the shop of the stationer and book seller E. Haynes. The grocer J.W. Matthews sold a good range of wines as well as tinned and bottled fruit, dried apple rings and oranges from Spain, at just 1s for sixteen.
And J. Ward was on hand to lay water and sewage pipes to your house - and paint it if you wished.
If a Suttonian needed a cup of coffee after all this shopping, that could be arranged too.
W.H. Tomes managed a coffee shop. His premises also catered for private parties and could supply food and tents - at 1s each - for children's parties and outings for workmen in Sutton Park.
Glimpses into Sutton's Past 1800-1914 by Stephen Roberts can be ordered from Amazon.
Associate Professor
Stephen Roberts