So Who Was Josiah Gilbert Pt 2

Anniversary

As we learned in part 1 of the story of Josiah Gilbert, he was a corner shopkeeper. 

The area close to Empress Road had grown up from about 1888 when Queen Street was developed and named in honour of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee which was in 1887. It is possible that Empress Road itself was built to celebrate Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and named Empress Road as Queen Victoria had been Empress for 20 years, since 1877. Of the houses that remain, the earliest seem to date from 1900 and these are in fact nos.73, 75 and the corner shop at no.77.

The 1911 census return lists no inhabitants of no.75, but living in no.73 are the 12 members of the Hanford family, all employed in the hosiery and elastic webbing industry. 

The corner shop is being run by married couple, Fred and Clara Spencer: Clara is the grocer and general dealer, and Fred, the grocer's assistant. Given that Josiah Gilbert and wife Sarah were both working at their shop on Main Street, Markfield on the 1911 census return, it is reasonable to suppose that they continued to do so when taking on the corner shop on Empress Road, and probable that son, William Josiah Handley Gilbert was also helping in the shop. 

The corner shop would have been a vital part of the neighbourhood around Empress Road, and the everyday essentials that they sold to the locals, who would have popped in most days, would have been very affordable. Many of the goods on sale would not have been pre-packaged, so there was a lot of weighing out - of things like tea, sugar, butter, dried fruit and rice - and packing to do. If the shop sold tobacco, this would have come in a hard rope-like coil that would need to be cut to size; salt would have come in bars, and would need to be sawn to the required size; and soap came in half-yard lengths! 

The shop might also have sold meat, as well as homemade jams, bread, and tartlets, cooked on the premises. It's also quite possible that the corner shop sold patented medicines, as well as other, unregulated medicines. 

When Josiah Gilbert took over the corner shop in 1914, it was a boom time for such premises as his, but this would soon come to an abrupt halt as the First World War took hold. Britain was heavily reliant on imported foodstuffs, and these supplies suffered, such that by 1917, starvation was a distinct possibility amongst the population. As the war progressed, so the corner shop shelved emptied and what the shopkeeper did have for sale became more and more expensive. 

However ...

Today is the anniversary of a tragic event in Loughborough. Here is the second part of the Story of Josiah Gilbert.

Tune in again at 9pm today for other, related stories

You can find the first part of the story here.

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough 31 January 2021

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Dyer, Lynne (2021). So Who Was Josiah Gilbert Pt 2. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/01/so-who-was-josiah-gilbert-pt-2.html [Accessed 31 January 2021]

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