ROW THREE *1
Boulter the Baker's Row *2
Doughty's Row*2
Boulter's rusk shop is at the N.E. corner. Henry
Boulter died in 1865, and was buried in the Quaker's burial ground. (Rows 60/63) A boat was discovered
here, deep down when digging a well in about 1845. Doughty the Grocer had a
shop at the S.E. corner for many years. *2
Bell's the butchers shop is on the edge of Row 3. The
wall at the front end of the row on the north side is a very old one. Most of the other walls have been replaced
relatively recently with new brick.
There is a nice little square garden at the rear behind a very high wall
with apple and pear trees, and behind that is an electricity sub station, which
is surrounded on 2 sides by another very old brick and flint row wall, clearly
part of a house now demolished, which looks as if it could well be of 16th
century origin.
From the east end of row 3 can be seen the "Kings
Arms". Looking westerly, the row still runs through to the river, passing
by at the west end the new Telephone Exchange. On the site of this telephone
exchange was the Lacon's malthouse already described, which was up for sale in
December 1971 to be subsequently demolished. It was a very large malthouse,
first built in 1705 and rebuilt in 1912.
Row 3 led from the north part of Laughing image Corner
to Northgate Street, and was called Boulter’s Row from the baker's shop at the north-east
corner. If we have many pubs today, then there were certainly many more before,
since at the south-east corner of the row was a public house called "The
Horse and Groom" in 1850 or so, and which had belonged in 1738 to Andrew
Chambers of Horning.
The walls at the south-east end of row 3, on the side of no. 24 Northgate
Street, are also of a
very considerable age, with brick and flint construction. An old row
door exists at this point, a front-door into the row, which appears to be
little,if at all used these days. Where
Boulter's stood is now Bells the
Butchers, a more modern two storey building, no. 25 Northgate Street, which in
February 1994 was empty and for sale.
There is a slight bend to the right in Row Three, if
one walks in a westerly direction from Northgate Street. The 1870 photo would
therefore have been taken from the cross row and perhaps shows Mr.Newark's
bakery on the left. (i.e. looking back up the row) In another photograph,
Mr.Newark is shown as a rather young man delivering bread on St.George's Road.
He scarcely looks more than 20 years old - what halcyon days! The old open
gutter can be seen on the right of the 1870 photograph, whereas the 1900
photo. shows it had been converted to a closed underground system. In my view
this photo appears to show no. 12 or 13 on the right, again looking east.
In the 18th.Century, Laughing Image Corner and Rainbow
Square were seen as a large open Square or Plain, and Sayer's corner was where
Rainbow corner was to be later. The photo. of houses at Rainbow Corner must be
of those in the centre- the block of 6. It
is taken late in the day from the west, since one can just see the space
immediately behind the house that
reveals the small garden behind. The
photo of Cross Row from Rainbow corner is also dated about 1870, and shows the
houses on the right which were demolished before 1906 to make way for yet
another malthouse. Immediately beyond the second house is the end of row 5. The
end of row 4 can also
be seen. The
house at the North-West corner projects out several feet. To the left of
that is the very narrow passage into
Row 2 from Laughing Image
Corner. The Second house in this photo is jettied and timbered, and has a very
steep roof, formerly thatched, and appears to be of 16th. century origin; it
also appears to have a shop window.
This row was not mentioned in the 1936 Row
Survey.
William Charles Newark had the bakery at no.5, the
house on the corner of the cross row. He took
the business over from his Uncle.
The horse and cart in the photograph belonged to his uncle (Mr.Guyton). He had
started work at the age of fourteen, working for Mr.Guyton before taking
over the bakery himself. There is a photo of him with his first wife, by
whom he had two boys, William
Charles, and Richard Crisp Newark.
Left, Mr Newark, Right Eva and Fred outside No 3.
Newark met his second wife, Alice Eva Shingles, at the
White Horse pub. where she was working. She
had two children by Newark, Eva (1923) and Fred (1925), both born at the
bakery. She also had another son by another man, but Newark took him on as
his own son. (George) The baker's shop was through the left hand
front door, and there was another front door on the right directly into the
living-room. Behind the shop was the bakery, there being a partition at the
back of the shop, and a doorless opening into the bakery. The bakery oven was
large enough to bake several Sunday dinners at a time. Newark would be up very
early in the morning to light the fire. The cart was kept in the yard behind
the bakery, but the horse was stabled
in a small stable, one of three on the south side of Laughing Image Corner. The
stable was immediately behind the Chaplin's house(no.7) on North Quay, at the
south-west corner of Laughing Image Corner. The other stables were those of
Slack, and Mr.Symonds. Above the shop were four bedrooms, and on the
second floor, a large single roomed
attic where the family would stay when Mrs Newark took in summer visitors. The front and back bedroom on the west side of the house went
over the cross row or passage into row 2.
Alice Eva Newark.
Fred Newark first worked at Wenn's box factory (see
North Quay), when he left school. Then he
and his sister both worked at
the shoe factory, and Fred in due course went into the navy. Eva met and married Jim Twine, who came from
Sussex as a gunner, and manned a Bofors gun at the north-east corner of the
Haven Bridge. Eva and Jim lived in the two front first-floor rooms of the
bakery during their first married year. A man called Hacon rented the bakery to
William Newark, and later Newark bought it from him. During the war though,
Newark had a number of customers who didn't pay their bills, and unfortunately
he was bankrupt. He went to work for Purdey's bakery, and the house becoming
dilapidated, it was sold to the council, who subsequently pulled it down. Mr.
Newark died in 1967, aged 92.
*1 Palmer gave no name
*2 Johnson,
1927