Dr Jacob was a pharmacist in the prison service for 25 years and
is now retired.
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While browsing through a charity shop, one of my favourite
pastimes, I spotted a watercolour print of an old chemist shop. The fascia
displayed the name of Taylor & Brawn, Chemists. The painting was by
an S. or G. Cartwright. It was not dated, but by the style of dress worn
by the three figures shown, a lady, gentleman and a young lad (presumably
employees of the firm), it would have been painted in the late Victorian
or Edwardian eras. Featured are several carboys containing coloured water,
and legends such as “toilet bottles”, “methylated spirit”, “photographic
requisites” and “prescriptions
dispensed”. The only advertising material is devoted to Erasmic products,
a range of
toiletries for men. I was intrigued by this picture, and decided to see
what I could find out about the chemist shop portrayed. My first ports
of call were the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s museum and the Register
of Premises.
The beginning
The story began in 1780 when a shop was opened by a chemist, Robert Palgrave,
and his two sons at the Castle Lane corner of the High Street in Bedford.
Some years later one of Palgrave’s sons took on an assistant, John
Usher Taylor, who took over the
business in 1858 and was later to become the Mayor of Bedford. Taylor & Cuthbert
In 1867, when John Taylor’s partner, Henry Stewardson retired, a
chemist, who was also a dentist, joined the business. John Mason Cuthbert
had been in practice next door to Barnard’s bank. He qualified as
a Pharmaceutical Chemist in 1853 (certificate number 273), and registered
with the Pharmaceutical Society in 1854, when he moved to Bedford. His
address in the first register in which it was compulsory for pharmacists
to be listed (under the 1869 Pharmacy Act) is given as Bedford. However,
during 1875 this was expanded to 19 High Street, Bedford. This was the
address of the new partnership of Taylor & Cuthbert, at new premises
next door to Lloyd’s bank.
John Taylor’s son, James Bennett
Taylor, was born in 1856. James qualified as a chemist and druggist in
1879 and went on to pass the major examination as a pharmaceutical chemist
the next year at the age of 24. His registered address was also given as
19 High Street, Bedford.
In 1887 a new apprentice by the name of Henry Samuel Brawn, was engaged,
aged 14. The son of a farmer at Copley Hoo, Henry was educated in Lincolnshire
and qualified as a chemist and druggist in 1894. His address on registration
was Copley Hoo, Bedfordshire. Between 1894 and 1897 he was variously
in Leamington, London and Coventry.
Brawn seems to have been somewhat of a character, riding his penny-farthing
bicycle from his village in Stoke Goldington, in Buckinghamshire, to
the shop on Monday mornings and back home again at the weekends. It is
from
Henry Brawn that most of the story of the Taylor & Cuthbert era has
come. From the Bedfordshire Times (20 November, 1959) we learn: “He
[Brawn], savoured to the full the virtues, demerits and oddities of the
Victorians in his daily work and in his many social contacts. The pen-pictures,
the vignettes, the glimpses he has recorded were lively as well as authentic,
warm hearted as well as factual. Long after he had joined the firm and
had eventually become himself a partner, he wrote of the days of his apprenticeship
and of the years of his later service as an experienced employee. ‘The
view from our shop window, straight opposite St Paul’s Church, filled
me with delight. In our window we had six large carboys that reflected
to us, inside the shop, each passerby, with a
camera obscura effect, while our doorway was a kind of kaleidoscopic grandstand,
from which the familiar great ones of the town and the many ordinary folk
could be glimpsed as they passed.’
“The pavement and the road alike were in those days free for all. No
fuss about ‘parking’ of phaeton or pony chaise, or gig or dogcart,
or about loitering. But for Taylor, Cuthbert and their staff it was not
all standing and staring at the outward scene. Before opening shop at 7am,
the staff took a plunge in the Commercial Road baths in summer, and from
October to May a daily brisk walk as far as Newnham footbridge and back,
past those fields of waving
corn. ...From 7am till 11am the staff was busy dusting and setting to
rights the hundreds of jars, bottles, packets, drawers and cabinets of
stock. Then, aprons off, and their appearance neat and their bearing urbane,
they began their counter service.
“The premises in High Street included five cavernous cellars and a three-roomed
warehouse. The stock included a whole row of 100-gallon cisterns of turpentine
and
linseed and other oils: in bins were stored seeds and poppies; in casks,
sulphur,
copperas [crude zinc, iron or copper sulphate] and salt. A fine oak gantry
supported large casks of vinegar and of quinine wine; Oakley Hunt sauce
(maturing in wood) and a barrel of spiced brine for use in the making
of Taylor’s ready-mixed mustard.
“The firm made marking ink by the quart; French polish by the gallon; compound
liquorice powder was stored in quarter- and half-hundred weights. Pills
were massed and rolled by hand (horse balls too!) and ointments rubbed
to a velvety smoothness. All this hard work was done by hand. Drugs of
the Taylor & Cuthbert era, and
earlier, included amadou, a dried fungus treated with saltpetre, and ‘Archangel
Angelica’[sic], one pound to a gallon of proof spirit producing
Angelica water — this in the days when most beverages were laced
with Dutch brandy. Blue vitriol was bought in two-ton lots, hand crushed
and sold
for dressing [treating] seed wheat. At a warehouse, which the firm had
in Howard Street was a 100-gallon copper for making sheep-dip and,
later, weedkiller. Gamekeepers bought arsenic and strychnine for killing
vermin.
“Hundreds of ‘counter lines’ were sold by the penn’orth,
each packet wrapped by the staff — who a1so had a specially busy
time on Friday evenings, wrapping some 60 packets of shag tobacco, to
be sold on the Market Square the next day — at 7 1/2d (3 pence)
for two packets! The daily demand for cheap medicaments included a preparation
called “hiera piera”, jalap, rhubarb root, sugar of lead,
saffron and opium. There were dozens of others, and the origins
of each and all were known to the
encyclopaedic mind of Harry Brawn.” Taylor & Brawn
 The year 1897 is an important one in this story. Brawn, aged 24, became
a partner and the firm, now Taylor & Brawn, moved,
taking over one half of the premises of Messrs Elliot, grocers. This shop,
noted for its large windows, was located at the south-east corner of the
High Street and Mill Street, at 69a High Street.
A search of Kelly’s directories showed that in 1903 the firm was
still Taylor & Brawn, but by 1906 it was Taylor, Brawn & Flood.
Frank Flood became a partner between 1903 and 1906. This also means that
the watercolour must have been painted before 1906.
Brawn had seen the move from 19 High Street to the modest shop next to
the small Prudential Assurance office where later stood the Cross Keys
Inn. Further, he had seen the small concern the firm had at 53 High Street,
adjacent to the Lion Hotel, transferred to new premises at 36 St Peter’s
Street. These premises are those in the watercolour — the “36” can
just be made out. The frontage of this new shop was later to be replaced
by one in the Georgian style.
In the painting, there is a notice on a blind above the doorway stating: “Also
at 69a High Street—Telephone No 44”. From Mates guide of 1906
there were three
photographs. One was of Taylor & Brawn’s shop at 36 St Peter’s
Street. The second was of Taylor & Brawn’s shop and offices at
69a High Street, and the third of Taylor, Brawn & Flood’s shop
at 16 Bromham Road. The company also had premises in Howard Street. Taylor, Brawn & Flood
Frank Flood, the third partner, had served his apprenticeship with Taylor & Cuthbert
and qualified as a chemist and druggist in 1894. His address then was Bedford
Street, Woburn, Bedfordshire.
In the Mates guide, Taylor, Brawn & Flood is shown to be dispensing,
analytical, photographic and manufacturing chemists of Bedford, and the
sole proprietors of T&Bs Euonymin pills, “a unique Liver Pill,
with a great local reputation”. These were available in boxes,
at 6d (2 1/2 pence) and 1/- (5 pence). In the 27th edition of Martindale’s
Extra Pharmacopoeia, euonymus is said to have a mild purgative and choleretic
(stimulating the secretion of bile) action, and
usually administered as Euonymus extract (British Pharmaceutical Codex
1949).
The firm became a limited company in 1913. In the Register of Premises
for 1936, Taylor, Brawn & Flood Ltd is shown as having four pharmacies,
at: 69a High Street, Bedford (company headquarters); 36 St Peter’s
Street, Bedford, (closed in 1970); 16 Bromham Road, Bedford (closed in
about 1964); and 25 High Street, Sandy, Bedfordshire (purchased in 1928
and sold to E. E. Russell in 1946). Further, the firm had a soft drinks
factory in Lurke Street, which was closed to make way for a multistorey
car park.
In 1911 James Taylor’s registered address changed to Ampthill in
Bedfordshire, thought to be his residential address rather than business
premises. This was still his address when he died on 14 November 1928.
In his obituary in The Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist, it is stated: “The
late Mr Taylor was a representative of the old school of culture — an
unassuming kindly disposed gentleman, esteemed by all with whom he came
into contact. Bronchial
asthma and other infirmities prevented him taking an active part in business
for some years past, but he retained his position as a director of Taylor,
Brawn & Flood until his death. He was prominent in local non
conformist circles, and for several years
acted as a district secretary to the Pharmaceutical Society.”
As for Brawn, he continued as a partner for 30 years, during which time
he became chairman. In 1929, he retired, after 42 years’ service
with the firm, although he returned to work during the 1939–45 war.
His daughter, Mary Aileen Brawn, registered as a chemist and druggist in
1922. She married in 1934, but her name does not appear in subsequent registers.
Brawn himself lived on for another 27 years after retiring, dying in 1956
at the age of 83.
Taylor, Brawn & Flood Ltd was taken over by Paul Martin (Chemists)
Ltd, a
London-based firm with 12 shops, mainly in the East End of London. The
change in management was completed in June 1970. In October of that year,
the last remaining shop of Taylor, Brawn & Flood (69a High Street,
which had been renumbered as 71) came under the direction of pharmacist
Christopher John Hilton. Hilton worked there until 1981, witnessing the
business’s 200th anniversary in 1980. During 1980, new premises were
acquired at 9 West Arcade, Bedford. This pharmacy appears
to have closed in during 1983, and the
company was finally wound up.
During 1984 the pharmacy at 71 High Street was sold to R. M. Patel. Thus
ends the fascinating story of Taylor, Brawn & Flood and their 204-year
history, about which I would have known nothing but for my browsing in
a charity shop. The only piece missing from the jigsaw is that I have been
unable to trace the identity of S. or G. Cartwright, who might have been
a local artist.
Acknowledgements
1. Briony Hudson, keeper of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society museum collections, and her assistants.
2. Erica Foden-Lenahan, Hyman Kreitman Centre for the Tate Library
and Archive.
3. Barry Stephenson, team librarian reference and local studies,
Bedford Central Library.
4. Nigel Lutt, Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service.
5. Phil Manning, store manager of Boots the Chemists, The Harpur
Centre, Bedford.
6. Simon Fenwick, Archivist, Royal Watercolour Society.
7. Christopher Hilton formerly a director of Taylor, Brawn & Flood
Ltd.
8. Bryony Kelly, Royal Pharmaceutical Society museum collections. |
Correction
In this article, the watercolour print was wrongly cropped, excluding the young lad referred to in the first paragraph. |
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