Lower High Street Merchant Of 85 Years Ago

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32275, 18 April 1970, Page 5

Lower High Street Merchant Of 85 Years Ago

By

JIM HOSKINS)

From research it can be learnt that a William Woods was the second and only surviving son of G. Woods, a hosiery maker of Godaming, Surrey, England, and was bom in 1847. He married the daughter of William Christmas (who had flourmilling interests) in 1872, arrived at Lyttelton in the ship Northampton in 1873, then started as a grain and produce merchant in Lower High Street in 1885.

William Woods purchased a small house with bedrooms upstairs, standing at the corner of this street and Barbadoes Street Next door in Barbadoes Street was an empty section, a band practice building, then the old wooden Hibernian Hall. Buildings and houses were sparsely dotted near his home: Lower High Street (which began at Fitzgerald Avenue) was a wide rutted track leading from the port Those that passed on foot on the road edge, where in time would be a proper footpath, could look into the front room, should they so desire. Hanging in the present shop is an 1885 photograph, which shows a small home (without the present veranda) with the sign painted on the wall, “W Woods, Produce Merchant—Agent for Christmas Bros., Flourmillers, Eng. - ’ At first one small room of the house was used to conduct trade, then a wall had to be knocked out as expanding business demanded more space. When the boys were old enough to assist full time it was decided that these premises should be a retail outlet and store, while William shifted across the street to a site behind a large house standing on the present Toomey’s Corner. Another photograph bears the heading, “Woods, Mammoth, Hay Chaff and Corn Mills, Chch, N.Z. Cutting and Crushing for the Trade and Public.” The scene shows a number of stacks of grain built on this site and part of the large premises established here. It should be remembered that in those far off days, there were farms in Ferry Road and on the outskirts of the then town. Often William would purchase a crop as it stood in stook, on condition it would be carted to town and built into stacks on his wholesale premises. Other pictures show one of nine and another

of 10 stacks of grain in a stubble paddock. Printed underneath the photographs are the words: “Stacks bought by W. Woods.” Family records do not say when William Woods gave up this wholesale business. He died in 1920, but George Woods, his son, was running the retail business by 1902, for a National Bank statement book has the entry, January 21—Deposit £23. A present company director, Lawrence Woods, told me he was born in the front room, which for the occasion had been made into a bedroom; it is now the office, complete with open fireplace. The open section was purchased for storage space, then the wooden band practice room, and brick storerooms built; just round the corner in St Asaph Street was erected a large building for grain crushing and manufacturing laying mash. The building was recently sold to a glass firm. Big Stocks Held Naturally horses were used for all cartage. Another picture shows tram tracks, an unmetalled road, three spring carts and a waggonette, all loaded with sacks of chaff outside the shop of George H. Woods, for as Noel Woods (great-grandson of William) told me: “If stocks of chaff ever fell below a 100 tons it was thought they were scratching the bottom of the bins.” The horses were not kept on the premises, for all the room was needed for storage of small seeds, chaff and other grains. The stables were in Olliviers Hoad: they still stand there but have been sold to a machinery firm for storage. Still yet space was needed, so the brick copper and chimney were dismantled in the washouse, chaff stored there too. Any extra was carried up the stairs and placed in the former bedrooms —the

home was now all given over to trading. “My grandfather George died in 1920, and his son Morton, who was only 20, took over. Dad ran the business until his death in April, 1969, now I’m manager. You may be interested in one of grandfather’s receipt books. Unfortunately none of William Woods’s trading books have been preserved.” From these records I found that in 1925, £3-5-0 a ton was paid for onions; the best oat-sheaf chaff was purchased at £3-15-0 a ton. In 1949 it was double this, while two years later (1951) it had risen to £ll-10-0 a ton, an increase of £4 a ton. Today the same quality is bought in quantity at £3O ($6O) a ton. “Years ago most of our business was in chaff, fowl wheat, mash; pollard, and bran, but since horses have largely, gone from the farming scene and few folks now keep fowls, the trading pattern has changed. Manures,

grass and garden seeds have largely taken their place, though generally in bulk sales,” said Mr Woods. “Funny thing happened recently. A traveller for a scale-making firm called in and asked if I were interested in buying a chronometer, but I answered that the firm had one. ‘Well you are the first that even knows what the word means, let alone own one,’ was the surprised answer.” I was shown this chronometer. a heavy brass grainweighing scales made in Germany long ago. Briefly it was a triangle with a graduated scale fixed to it; a small tin cup would be filled level with grain and hung on a hook, then a pointer would move across the scale to tell what the weight would be per bushel of the particular grain that was to be purchased in bulk.

Part of the office fittings was furniture from the original home, the walls still had a patterned paper of the days when this room was the best room of the house, when William Woods lived here in Lower High Street 85 years ago.