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| GfB: history of 92 | |||
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> Greyfriars Books opened in the basement of 92 East Hill in 1983, but the building, and its site, had an interesting history even before this... The land on which 92 East Hill stands was on the north side of the main street of the Roman city of Colonia Claudia Victricensis, (commonly referred to by its Celtic name: Camulodunum), just inside the east gate of the walls built after the Boudican Revolt of AD 61. Very little is known about this part of the Roman city, but it must have seen a lot of passing trade. After the Roman departure during the 5th century the town shrank and this area was probably deserted and used as agricultural land. Colchester's renaissance occurred in the later Saxon and Norman periods. In the early 13th century a Franciscan monastery, Greyfriars, was established in the town and in 1237 Henry III granted them a plot of land on the north side of the High Street between the Castle and East Gate. The Greyfriars monastery survived until its dissolution in 1538. It was first leased by the Crown then granted in 1544 to Francis Jobson who sold it in 1565. After various owners the old monastery was sold to the Reverend John Halls in 1752. It was he who built the new Grey Friars house and laid out its gardens. In 1824 the Priory Field and gardens were leased to the trustees of the Botanic Gardens and for a couple of decades this site was Colchester's equivalent of Vauxhall Gardens, witnessing such excitements as firework dislays and balloon ascents. The Botanic Gardens closed in 1851 and the land was sold off in 72 small plots. The plot on the corner of East Hill and the newly laid out Roman Road was bought by William Collins who sold it on to the Colchester "architect, surveyor and agent for asphaltes", Thomas Wood, in 1859. Thomas Wood, who lived on the opposite side of East Hill, built number 92, (which was 86 until the street was renumbered in about 1892), during 1860. The building's first owner was William Peake Webster, who described himself as a medical botanist. He lived in the house with his family until they moved to Head Street about 1876. 92 was then home in turn to Susannah Winter, (1878, 1882) and the Reverend John Thomas, (1886, 1888), who was chaplain to the Union workhouse, before George James Farmer and his family moved here from from Priory Street in about 1889. Around this time the building was known as Collingwood House, presumably named after the admiral who tood command of the British fleet after Trafalgar. William Peake Webster died in 1895, but his estate was insufficient to cover his debts and 92 was sold at auction for £400. It was bought by Charlotte Poulton, who promptly sold it for £450 to Arthur Othniel Stopes, owner of the Eagle Brewery further down East Hill. In 1908 the building was bought by Charles William Dorlin for £350. George Farmer, owner of the famous ironmongery in High Street, lived here until his death in 1897 and his widow, Amy, continued until her death in 1899. The house was occupied by Emily Baxter, widow of Benjamin Baxter, grocer of Military Road, from 1900 to 1902. The next few years are a blank until 1910 when the occupier was one mysterious William Griffin Clasper, who seems to have come from Sunderland. In 1913 a Suffolk corn miller, Robert Mitchell Daking, arrived and his widow, Lydia, carried on running 92 as the Collingwood boarding house until 1926, when the house's longest term resident moved in. The first reference we have found to Abraham Byers is in the 1901 Census when he was a 15 year old tailor's apprentice living in Guisborough, Yorkshire. In 1926 he set himself up in Colchester as a furrier and tailor, and continued living at 92 East Hill until 1959. It was soon after this that the ground floor and basement were converted into offices, with the two floors above converted into flats. From 1961 to 1968 the ground floor was the office of Regna Cash Registers, and from 1965 to 1968 the basement, (now distinguished as 92B), was a betting office. Then, from 1969 to 2001 the ground floor became the nerve centre of the Colchester Poster Advertising Service while 92B was the home of Mirage Design, then Braiswick Photographic Co Ltd, before the lease was taken by Greyfriars Books in 1983. In 2001 the Colchester Poster Advertising Service was sold to J. C. Decaux (UK) Ltd and, since they no longer needed an office, Greyfriars Books took the opportunity to expand upwards into the floor above it, opening its new space in 2002. |
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