2 weeks Ago
Builders working on No.2 St James Street surprised passersby when they uncovered a sign for a shop with a 180-year history. The shop in the Independent Quarter was, until two months ago, filled by Leftfield, which offered organic beauty and wellness products.
Prior to that, it was Neal’s Yard organic health and beauty remedies. No.2 currently stands empty awaiting a new tenant.
Somerset Heritage took up the challenge of tracing the shop's history, which was being renovated after the closure of Sovrins in 2014. They found that the business dated back to 1840 – four years after the County Gazette was first published. Joseph Edward Kingsbury Leah Whiting worked back from 1952, when Kingsbury’s closed, and found the first mention of the business in an 1840 trade directory.
It sold corn, hay, straw, coal, and iron. The 1841 census mentioned coal merchant John Kingsbury, who was living in Taunton St James, although documents in the Somerset Heritage archive prove the family trade goes back even further. Leah said: “We know from parish records that a Joseph Kingsbury was working as a coal merchant in the 1820s.
“There are also court records showing a William Meade took a boat loaded heavier than regulations permitted on the River Tone, and that Joseph Kingsbury, who was working as a coal merchant at the time, confiscated some of his goods as punishment. “We hold papers for Joseph Kingsbury a few months later being in debt to another businessman on St James Street, so it seems the court case took a toll on his work. “Around this time, Joseph’s brother, John, begins working as a coal merchant too, maybe trying to help run the family business.
” By 1851, John’s son, also John, had taken over the business and the following year a Quarter Sessions document shows a thief stole his coal scuttle. John junior was on a committee for the rebuilding of St James Church tower and was Taunton’s Weights and Measures Inspector until 1853, when he married. Kingsbury Stores flourished for the rest of the 19th Century, while father-of-three John left his son the equivalent of £82,000 when he died in 1892.
Joseph Edward continued the business and Kingsbury’s Stores placed adverts in numerous trade directories and town guides. He became the owner of the property in 1910 and in 1922 he became Alderman for Taunton. There are no records from the 1920s, although another Gazette reader said the shop was managed by Joe Moyland in the 1940s.
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