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History of the Christopher Chemist Shop

Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire

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The Christopher Pharmacy, as reconstructed in Bradford on Avon Museum

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The greatest part of Bradford on Avon Museum and the reason for its foundation is the interior and old contents of a pharmacy or chemist shop which operated in Silver Street in the town between 1863 and 1986.

The building, now an estate agent at 29 Silver Street, is one of a group of Georgian houses on the corner of Silver Street and Kingston Road, formerly Mill Lane. They occupy a position that would have faced what was then the Market Place and Market House -the latter was demolished in the 1820s after becoming derelict and the Market was moved to Pippet, now Market, Street in the 1840s.

Thomas Prideaux Saunders 1863-1881

Prideaux Saunders was the founder of the shop in October 1863, from which time the prescription books date. He was born 1836 in Bruton, Somerset, the second son and third child of nine of Thomas Viney Saunders (1796-1864), a surgeon in Bruton and Eliza Prideaux (1800-1875) from North Tawton, Devon of a family with roots in Cornwall. He married Christiana Gore Tudball (born in 1836),  daughter of John Gore Tudball, a surgeon in Wiveliscombe, Somerset and sister of a chemist and druggist. So he had a background in medicine.  He very quickly acquired the business of some of the notable families in and around Bradford, despite the existence of two older chemists in Silver Street- George Marks and Thomas & Emmanuel Taylor. There is the possibility that he already had connections in the town and there may be a relationship to the influential Saunders family of clothiers and lawyers. Being active in the Bradford Freemasons’ Lodge of Friendship and Unity might have helped too. He served as its Master and was awarded a Past Master’s jewel in 1879. In an 1867 directory he was listed as a chemist and druggist as well as an agent for the Great Northern Fire & Life Office, so was also selling insurance, like several other businesses and was living above the shop. Both his parents seem to have moved with him to Bradford and died here, but Thomas and Christiana did not have any children. By 1881 he was he was not in good health, although only 45 and he retired and moved to Uphill, near the coast just south of Weston-super-Mare. His health held out for twelve more years and he was  in Axbridge, not far from Weston, when he died in 1893. Axbridge may have been the home of his elder brother Paris Sweeting Saunders, who was described as “gentleman”.

Saunders’ shop in 1875; perhaps that is him in the doorway. Apart from the name, the exterior of the shop, and much of the interior hardly changed in 120 years. On the upper shelf of both windows is a pair of large glass carboy jars, the same ones that can be seen in the Museum’s recreation today.

Albert Henry Cooper 1881-1891

The 1881 census shows Thomas and Christiana still living above the shop as well as a housemaid and an assistant. This was Albert Henry Cooper, who was 25 at the time and had been born not far away, in Melksham. Probably he had served an apprenticeship under Saunders and was able to take over the business when his boss retired, buying it from him for £100. Four years later he married Kate Taylor, the youngest daughter of a member of the family of one of the rival shops who by then were switching over to be wine and spirit merchants. After ten years in the shop, he sold up and moved to Bath to take over the shop at 7 Bridge Street, currently Blue Quails Deli.

William Norris 1891-1908

The next owner was William Norris, who was born in Doulting in Somerset in about 1860. He seems to have been living above the shop with Mary, his unmarried sister, until he married Winifred. The business seems to have declined during his tenure, which was probably because he was suffering from poor health. He died in 1908 at the age of 48 and his widow engaged Richard Thorney Christopher as manager and sold the shop to him later in the same year.

Richard Thorney Christopher 1908-1962

Richard Christopher was born in Heckington, a market town in Lincolnshire, in 1871, the son of a local draper and grocer. He was to manage the shop for over half a century and, after his death, he was succeeded by his daughter Angela Mary Christopher, until her retirement in May 1986.

Read more about the Christopher family

Bradford on Avon Museum Society 1986 to present

Richard Christopher’s interest in antiquarianism, especially regarding pharmacy and because his family moved out of the building, leaving space in backrooms, meant that much of the shop’s furnishings dated right back to when Thomas Prideaux Saunders opened it in 1863. Some of the things were already old when Saunders acquired them. When Angel Christopher was to retire in 1986, there was no interest from anyone in buying such an old-fashioned business. The prospect that the contents of this old and well-loved shop would end up dispersed to antique dealers and into skips, as had happened to so many old pharmacies, prompted a movement to preserve them. So, Bradford on Avon Museum Society was born and, with assistance from a fund managed by the Science Museum in London, acquired as much as was possible to remove to temporary storage offered by the Avon Rubber Company. Four years passed before there was anywhere to open a museum, which was within a new library that was built for Wiltshire County Council. Miss Christopher cut the ribbon to open her pharmacy shop to the public on 29th September 1990.