The Poor man's friend

D. Dunnett's shop was situated along the north side of High Street, across the Market Square to the south side of Middle street and occupied the premises where Charrington's Fuels, Milton's Shoe Shop, Dewhurst's Butchers, Preston's Book Shop and the Middle Street Dressmakers now trade. Like Durrant's and Kendall's, Dunnett's also dealt in grocery, provisions, hosiery, boots, shoes, drapery, millinery and in 1891 the price of their "WATTON WONDER" Tea was only Is2d. per lb. The Special Report of a Meeting held at H. Adcock's renowned "West End Stores" makes interesting reading, as will be seen on page 45. This shop is still operating on the same site and is still grocers.

Adcock & Sons, Builders, contractors and undertakers etc., were followed by Harvey's then by W. Peeke-Vout & Son, who built the Methodist Chapel. All had their works and offices where the residential site of Vincent Place now is.

A. W. Julnes - "The Poor man's Friend" - was a coal and coke merchant, also a dealer in rags, skins, horse hair, metal and iron. Two items of special interest in his advert are that he was prepared to take in any old iron, lead and other metal in exchange for coal. As times were very hard then, with little money to spend, many people would have been glad of this offer, as no doubt they could often manage to collect a few of these items to exchange for coal. More interesting still was the notice to hawkers - "Wanted 100,000 dozen Rabbit Skins", or in other words one million, two hundred thou­ sand. This clearly shows how many rabbits there were in the sandy Breckland area right on our doorstep and also how many people in those days relied heavily on the rabbit to provide a cheap, nutritious and delicious meal. Julnes's business at this time was situated on the corner of Norwich Road and Church Road, where Dye's now display many of their cars. When I first remember them they were also corn merchants, in fact, by then it was probably their largest turnover. They also had a coal yard at the station and a small shop in High Street where they sold seeds and pet foods, as they still do today, but this shop has been vastly extended and modernised in recent years. Its also one of the oldest properties in the High Street, dating back to 1769.

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