Explore the Past to Understand the Present and Shape the Future


If you're looking for any particular detail about a shop, house or person associated with the history of Newmarket,
enter the details in the box below and click 'Google Search' ...


only search Newmarket Shops History


Click or Touch the picture below ...

 for
a Map showing
the History of
Shops & Important Locations in Newmarket ... 

... then Click on The Map to find
the history of any specific building

Does anyone in Newmarket remember the illuminated Street Map outside the Post Office in the High Street?

Illuminated Street Map

On this you could press a selection of buttons that illuminated various sites-of-interest around the town.

This web site works in a similar way - if you click on the small map on the right, a full page map will appear that can be clicked-on at various highlighted positions to then show the history of that location.

Newmarket Interactive Map
... do come back here again tomorrow - new details are constantly being added ...

The Newmarket Stallion

Just like the real town this web site is a place to be explored - clicking on the blue text on any page will take you to another nook & cranny in the history of Newmarket Shops


or Click HERE
for a
LIST
of the SHOPS
Buildings & More

 in NEWMARKET

NEWMARKET LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY
NEWMARKET LOCAL
HISTORY SOCIET
Y

... click above to visit the NLHS website for a detailed history of Newmarket ...


Click above to take a walk
down the northern side of
the High Street

1896 Map of Newmarket
Click above to see an
1886 Map of Newmarket

Click above to take a walk
down the southern side of
the High Street
Old Newmarket Facebook
... click above to visit
Newmarket Shops History
on Facebook

Slice in Time

... or click above to visit the
'Slice in Time' website for a fascinating now-and-then take of Newmarket ...

1926 Map of Newmarket
Click above to see a
1926 Map of Newmarket
Old Newmarket Facebook
... or click above to visit the
Old Newmarket
Facebook page for a wonderful selection of photos showing the history of Newmarket ...
If you have any questions about or are able to contribute to any details on this web site please - E-MAIL
Send E-MAIL

Queen's visit to Newmarket - 3rd November 2016
Click HERE to see more photos


Winter Wonderland 2016
17th December 2016


For previous front page photos visit the Photo Gallery Page


Newmarket Racing

Though it's from a Newmarket-centric personal viewpoint (and some will dispute this), over at least the last three and a half centuries, Newmarket has evolved to become the world-wide centre of Thoroughbred horseracing. Home to the offices of the largest commercial organisation in British horseracing: the Jockey Club, plus the location of one of the world’s most internationally renowned Thoroughbred auctioneers: Tattersalls, and also with its many other highly successful racing establishments, Newmarket has in the eyes of many, become the horseracing capital of the world.

In a simplistic view, and in addition to the Jockey Club offices and Tattersalls, there are essentially three basic types of horseracing establishments that have grown up in and around Newmarket.

Firstly there's the Studs: where Mares (females) are covered by Stallions (Males) and the Foals (babies) are born - hundreds each year, requiring thousands of acres of secluded, closely mown, green paddocks to live their quiet and gentle early lives. These tend to be located (though not universally, and this has changed over the years) further out from the town, with a variety of studland occupying a cluster of villages and locations around Newmarket.

Secondly there's the Stables, and in Newmarket these are mostly training stables. These are generally located close to Newmarket's heathland: the Cambridge and the Bury / Moulton Heaths. Additional thousands of acres of cut grasslands, with gallops that aim to simulate the racecourse environment and facilitate the honing of the slightly older young horses up to what's hopefully the pinnacle of their racing careers.

Newmarket isn't isolated in the world-wide racing community though and over the years many highly influential personnel and horses have been attracted to its ably capable facilities.

Of particular early interest to the racing community is the family of George Dawson of Gullane in Scotland, with his four very famous race-horse trainer sons, three of them having training stables in Newmarket - Mathew, Joseph and John - details about them can be found on the page 'The Dawson Family'.

Then there's also Bedford Lodge in Bury Road - this extensive site has seen a wondrously complicated history intertwined with racing tradition. One other of the racing families, who at one time had a member occupying part of the Bedford Lodge site, was that of the Leader family: father Tom and sons Thomas Richard, Fred, Colledge, Stephen and Harvey - details about them can be found on the page 'The Leader Family'.

Finally in the list of Newmarket's racing establishment, of course we mustn't forget the town's 'Jewel in the Crown' - its racecourses: the Rowley Mile and the July. Details of their history, how they've evolved over the years, and their intimate links to the town can be found on the page - 'Newmarket's Racecourses'.

And then of course I'm sure that they wouldn't us to forget them in this Thoroughbred horseracing panorama, we have the National Horseracing Museum, presently located at No.99 High Street, though soon to relocate in the Autumn of 2016 to a new headquarters and become the National Heritage Centre for Horseracing & Sporting Art, located in the recently refurbished house and stables of the former King Charles II's Palace in Palace Street.

[Note from webmaster - my maternal Granddad worked at a stud - Eve Stud at Woodditton - details about him and his main charge; the 1953 Derby winner Pinza, can be found on the page for Bedford Lodge. My paternal Great Grandfather came to Newmarket some time during the 1870s to work at a racing stables, most probably Palace House Stables - details about him can be found on the page for King Charles II's Palace.]

Newmarket Heath

Although clearly the swathes of heathland around Newmarket have always been very strongly associated with it's racing industry, right from its early days, they have also had other lives ... and during WWII the heath to the west of the town became RAF Newmarket ... which even took over the Rowley Mile Course for use as its base.

Unfortunately amongst its many successes during that campaign RAF Newmarket was also at the centre of a variety of air crashes.

Further details about all this can be found on the page for Newmarket Heath.


Key events in history Kings & Queens of England
from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II

1577
1585
1585-1604

1620
1642-1651
1660
1665
1666

1770
1775-1783

1803-1815
1804
1805
1815
1851
1854-1856
1861-1865
1873
1876
1878
1879
1880-1881
1893
1888
1891
1899-1902

1903
1906
1914-1918

1927
1939-1945


1948
1963


Sir Francis Drake's world voyage
Sir Walter Raleigh's American colony
Anglo-Spanish War

Pilgrim Fathers voyage to America
English Civil War
The Restoration
Great Plague of London
Great Fire of London

Capt James Cook lands in Australia
American War of Independence

Napoleonic Wars
First steam train
Victory at Trafalgar
The Battle of Waterloo
Photography popularised
Crimean War
American Civil War
First QWERTY keyboard typewriter
Birth of the telephone
Invention of electric lamp
Anglo-Zulu war
First Boer War
First petrol car
Kodak box camera
First motion picture camera
Second Boer War

First flight
First radio broadcast
First World War
    Armistice Day - 11th November 1918
First 'talkie' film
Second World War
    VE Day - 8th May 1945
    VJ Day - 2nd September 1945
British Railways nationalised
Beeching Report on British Railways

  Elizabeth I

  James I

  Charles I

 Commonwealth

  Charles II

  James II

  William III & Mary II

Anne

  George I

  George II

  George III

  George IV

  William IV

  Victoria

  Edward VII

  George V

  Edward VIII

  George VI

  Elizabeth II

  1558 - 1603

  1603 - 1625

  1625 - 1649

  1653 - 1659

  1660 - 1685

  1685 - 1688

  1689 - 1702

  1702 - 1714

  1714 - 1727

  1727 - 1760

  1760 - 1820 

  1820 - 1830

  1830 - 1837

  1837 - 1901

  1901 - 1910

  1910 - 1936

  1936 - 1936

  1936 - 1952

  1952 - present

clicking on the blue text on any page will take you to another page about the history of Newmarket Shops


The Origins of Newmarket

The above chronology of milestone events and English royalty starts in 1558. By that time Newmarket was actually already well established, and although it took until 1605 with the royal patronage of King James I to start its evolution from being just a small village and instigating its subsequent elevated equestrian status, there's a wealth of historical events before then that have contributed to making Newmarket the town that it is today.

Although not strictly about the shops themselves this history does help understand the topography of the area; why the town is located in a strange island between two counties and why there's a major road running straight through the centre of it ... an explanation of these details can be found on the page for the Origins of Newmarket.



click on the above map
to find out about
the Origins of Newmarket.


Sadly we recently had to say goodbye to a very good friend and constant contributor to the many old postcard images that can be found on this web site, including that shown above. Roger Newman died at the County Hospital, Stafford on 13th February 2015. Although he'd been living with his wife Norma in Staffordshire for some time he often visited Newmarket to attend the Newmarket Local History Society meetings and always made the effort to come and chat to me about various aspects of Newmarket's history. Not only did he own a prodigious collection of old postcards, images of which he willingly shared, but his personal knowledge of the town and its history was so helpful in compiling many of the details on this web site.
His funeral was at 1 pm on Monday 2nd March 2015 at Stafford Crematorium. 




Many thanks to Tony Pringle for his help with this web site, particularly the many photos and histories of the pubs of Newmarket
Click the pictures above or below to see Tony's own web site, dedicated to the lives lost during the wars and the vaarious local memorials.


Exning Remembers Book Signing - Newmarket Library - 14th November 2013


IMPORTANT NOTE from the WEBMASTER
 Content on this web site is attributed as appropriate to its original source or supply -
can I ask that any copying or subsequent citation should respect the
original author(s) and reference them or this web site as the source of this material
Thank you

© 2016

Note:- all historical dates on this web site use the New Style (N.S.) calendar format (where the year starts on 1st January).
Any dates in Old Style (O.S.) calendar format have been corrected for their year of occurrence as required.
The change of the start of the year and the changeover from the O.S. calendar occurred in 1752 under the 'Calendar (New Style) Act 1750'.
The changeover also involved a change of dates as well (which is another matter) - for more details click HERE.

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