Chemists & Druggists
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Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Bradford on Avon Museum’s main exhibit is the reconstructed Christopher chemist shop of 1863-1986. Before that there had been various apothecaries, druggists, chemists and ‘chymisters’. From the 19th century there were others operating in Bradford on Avon, oddly they were usually in Silver Street too. Some of the town’s grocers sold patent medicines as well.
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George Marks had set up as a chemist in a big Georgian house near the bridge in Silver Street by 1841. He was only 20 at the time and had been born in Bradford. The distinctive giant pestle and mortar above the sign bearing his name probably dated from his time. He was the Honorary Secretary of the town’s Literary Institution and was still trading in Silver Street in 1881.
A rather worse-for-wear billhead issued by George Marks to John Harding jr. of Holt. It shows the device of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, of which Marks had been elected a member. The year is missing, but it was probably in the early 1860s.
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By 1887 George Marks’ business had been taken over by Walter Henry Willson, who retained his predecessor’s sign and the pestle and mortar above. The photograph is from the 1890s and shows Willson’s young sons with his assistant. The shop’s windows display nine glass carboys, which were probably only decorative and symbolic. In the right window are large glass jars containing natural sponges. One of these jars may have passed to Richard Christopher and is in the Museum’s collection
Walter Henry Willson died in 1931 at the age of 75 and the business continued under his son Harry Courtenay Willson. In 1961 the shop closed and the building was acquired by the Spencer Moulton rubber company, who demolished it to make a vehicle entrance to New Mill behind. This is the opening into Lamb Yard today. The pestle and mortar sign seems to have been in the Tithe Barn at Barton Farm for a while, but then it disappeared.
Another chemist and druggist shop in Silver Street was that belonging to Thomas & Emanuel Taylor, which was in the building that is now the Bunch of Grapes public house. The Taylors had a sideline in selling wine, beer and spirits that gradually became the mainstay of their business.
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The last chemist shop to open in Silver Street was that of Arnold Scrine, who came from a family of Bradford butchers. He trained with Richard Christopher, but then set up in one of the brick shops on the opposite side of the road. He died at the age of 47 in 1959 and the shop continued under other owners, but it retained his name until the end of the century. It is still trading today as the Day Lewis Pharmacy, the last chemist shop in Silver Street.
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Another recent pharmacy was 16 St Margaret’s Street, on the corner of St Margaret’s Hill, which had been Rose’s grocery shop. In about 1972 P. Gallagher was practising as a chemist here and he was followed by Geoffrey Garland MPS. In the 1990s it moved to the Health Centre, near the railway station and is now known as St Margaret’s Pharmacy.
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