The Carter family had owned premises including a shop, run by successive generations, in Victoria Street, Southwold since the very early 1800s. First it was established as a builders yard and merchants, then a hardware shop and finally a general store selling everything that could be expected (and probably more) of the times through which it moved.

 

 

One of the original ornate, headed invoices is shown above.

 

 

The above picture shows the Carter family group outside the Southwold shop in Victoria Street round about the 1890s. The business had developed from a builder's yard followed by a storage facility for furniture into a general hardware shop. As you can see in the picture, one of the facilities offered is cycle storage and hire - no doubt a popular resource in Southwold and the surrounding area in those days.

The two photographs below show Arthur Ponsonby Thorp Carter and his wife Margaret Anne Carter who ran the shop together until his early death in 1926. Then it fell to Margaret to carry on the business until their son, also called Arthur, finished his education and joined her as a partner around 1930.

 

 

 

 

Another member of the Carter family, Reg Carter, made his fame in writing items for the Beano cartoons and some of his famous Southwold postcard images can be seen by clicking here.

The shop finally closed its doors in 2000, after a heart-searching decision and breaking with a long family tradition that had some spanned 200 years. This choice was not an easy one to make, but as with many of our old local traditions, the corner shop was no longer a viable option in Southwold, Wrentham or any other village.

The advent of the affordable motor car gave us all the freedom to move around at will, made the 'weekly shop' possible and the arrival of a large number of supermarkets sounded the death knell of many a local business. Other businesses that could originally be found in every village became almost obsolete due to progress - such as the blacksmith, butcher and saddle maker. Please have a look at our pictures of the businesses in the old wrentham section to see some that have disappeared from the village. Bearing in mind that as the shop had been in the hands of one family for all that time and successive generations had simply carried on the business, albeit during two world wars, recession and changing as well as demanding times, the premises had never been totally cleared - just an occasional 'tidy up' taking place.

On the massive clearance that followed the shop closure, the vast majority of The Shop Museum's displays were re-discovered in the huge store rooms at the rear of the premises. A lucky situation that provided the means and the chance to preserve our local heritage and everday past that is often forgotten in today's busy and hectic world. After a time of deliberation, the museum idea came up and after a generous offer from the property owner, The Shop Museum at Wrentham was created.