Current Occupier
Richard Stent Opticians
Past Occupiers
- Barclays Bank
- County Stores – a high class grocery store. Presumably purchased the original Samways grocery store.
- Samways & Sons Grocers
William Thomas Samways
Ran this shop, known as Samways Supply Stores, for many years, along with a second premise on “The Triangle“ in West Street.
This is his story as told through the Ilminster records:
1841 – George Samways (Williams’ father) is living with his mother, Lydia Samways, in Maiden Newton. George was born between 1819 & 1821.
1850 – George married Eliza Perry on May 30th, 1850 in St Mary’s Church, Ilminster. There is no fathers name entered in the register for George.
1851 – George is living with Eliza in West Street. He is 31 and ‘works at the factory’ whilst she is 32 and a dressmaker.
1861 – George & Eliza are now living at Cross with their two-year-old son, William. George, 41, is a tow factory worker and Eliza is still a dressmaker.
1871 – George, 50, is now foreman of the flax mill (Dowlish Ford Mills) and Eliza, 51, has no occupation listed. They live at Dowlish Ford with 12-year William, scholar and a lodger, Willam Perry – Elizas father.
1877 – George died 4th May 1877 and left his estate of under £450 to his wife, Eliza. He is listed as being a warehouse clerk on his death certificate.
1881 – Eliza, 63, has moved to Court Barton with her only son William, 22 – a grocer’s assistant.
1882 – William Thomas Samways married Julia Bonning on March 27th, 1882. They are married in St Marys Church, Ilminster and he is listed as a grocer so we can see that in this last year, William has bought his business and married.
1891 – Eliza, 73, has moved again and is living at Cross. She is ‘living on her own means.’
1891 – William, 32, Grocer, is now living above his shop in East Street with Julia, 32, and their children – George, 8, Harry, 6, Albert, 3 and Gladys, 9 months. Julia’s mother, a widow, is also living with them and so too is Harriett Hooper, their general servant.
1901 – Eliza, 83, is still living at Cross and ‘living on her own means.’
1901 – William, 43, Grocer, is still living in East Street with Julia, 43. George, 18 and Harry, 16 are now Grocers Apprentices – presumably working in their father’s shop. His other children are named as Edward, 13, Reginald, 9, Gladys, 10 and Olive, 1.
1905 – Eliza dies in March 1905.
1911 – Three years before World War 1 and the disastrous fire in his West Street shop, William continues to run both of his shops and live in East Street – now listed as an 8-roomed property. He is 54, both a grocer and employer with three of his sons – George, 27, Harry, 25 and Edward, 23 – working in the business. Julia is now 53 and the other children all still live with their parents. Reginald, 19 is a lawyer’s clerk, Gladys, 21 is a schoolteacher and Olive, is at school. They have a live-in servant called Ena Musgrove, 20.
1919 – William died on 19th July 1919 leaving his estate of £4,381 1s 1d to William George Vine, manager and William Percival Batten, Assistant Overseer
1930 – Julia, of East Street, died on 31st March 1930 and left her estate of £1,863 17s to William Percival Batten.
What became of the children? George had a small holding at Dowlish Ford and became a Dairy Farmer, Harry died fighting during World War One, Edward married Rita Moore and in 1939 is living in Sherborne, working as a general labourer, Reginald married Amy Norman in 1914 and eventually moved into 12, The Crescent, Ilminster where he stayed until he died in 1975, Gladys moved to London where she married Sidney Comer and then emigrated to Florida, and Olive, remarkably is living at 14 East Street in 1939 (her fathers premise) and marries Albert Victor Green, a grocery and provisions dealer. They eventually move to London.