No.42 High Street

House History

Notes

• On Chapman's maps of Newmarket of 1768 & 1787 (below) the area of this shop and No.38-40 High Street is shown as the White Horse pub:-
  
  

  Chapman's Map of Newmarket 1787

  Chapman's Map of Newmarket 1768

  
  

• Woolworths & QD

• 

  Newmarket Journal QD opens on former Woolworths site Published 25/08/2009 FOUR staff who lost their jobs when Newmarket's Woolworths store closed were back behind the counters when a new QD store opened in its place on Tuesday. Lesley Pullen, previously manager of Woolworths, is now manager of the new shop and has been joined by Lorraine Joyce, who is the new night floor manager, Amy Thomas and Mel Moore - who together they had worked for Woolworths for more than 50 years. Mrs Pullen, who worked for Woolworths for around 30 years, joined QD in March and managed its new Beccles store on its opening. She was unable to be at Tuesday's opening due to a family bereavement, but she said earlier that recent closures of shops in Newmarket, including Woolworths, had been sad. "I am particularly pleased that QD has opened a store in the town having been the manager when this was a Woolworths," she said. "I am looking forward to welcoming some of the old faces in here and I know they will be overjoyed to be able to buy things which have been very hard, if not impossible, to find recently." Mrs Joyce worked in Newmarket Woolworths during two stints, first between 1982 and 1989 and then from 1990 until it closed in December, while Miss Thomas was entertainment manager at the store for five years. "It is like I have had a break and have come back home," she said. The arrival of the new shop was welcomed by Newmarket's mayor, Cllr Jane Bailey, who officially opened the store. She said: "It's great to see the store come to life again. It was such a big space in the High Street." QD made a 100 donation to Racing Welfare, a charity chosen by Cllr Bailey, to mark the opening. The Newmarket store is the fifth new QD branch to open in the last four months - all in former Woolworths premises. On sale are hundreds of discounted items and, subject to planning approval, it could soon include a garden centre at the back of the store.

  
  
• http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/news/latest-news/my-mum-would-have-shed-a-tear-at-woolworths-closure-1-547468

  Newmarket Journal 'My mum would have shed a tear at Woolworths closure' Published 08/01/2009 FOR many people, the closure of Newmarket's branch of Woolworths was the end of an era but for one Swaffham Bulbeck man its closure was much more than another store simply shutting up shop. Sixty-two-year-old Ken King will always have a special affection for the High Street store after his mother, Elizabeth King, helped set up and open the store back in the late 1920s. Born in 1910 - a year after the group opened its first store in Liverpool - at Myrtle House, Exning Road, Newmarket, Mrs King joined the group in 1926 after moving to Bradford to live with her aunt. "She was only 16 when she left Newmarket and joined Woolworths," said Mr King. "It was quite a big job she took on as she was employed to help set up the stores, employ staff, get stock sorted and generally get the shop on its feet." As well as the Newmarket branch, Mrs King helped establish stores in Cambridge, Blackpool and London. "For a girl in those days to travel as much as she did was quite a big thing," said Mr King. "She was never in the same place for very long. "She travelled all over the country, working in Surrey, London and even in Scotland." She left the company in the early 1930s to get married and later helped out with the country's war effort, becoming a member of the Red Cross. After the war, Mrs King, who was one of seven children, returned to the company, famous for its pick 'n' mix sweet range, in the mid 1950s and worked as a supervisor in the Cambridge branch until 1964. Like many in Newmarket, Mrs King also had links to the racing world - her father was a stable lad to classic-winning trainer George Lambton while her grandmother worked as a seamstress for the Jockey Club. "Before she moved away, she would sometimes go into work with her grandmother and on several occasions was lucky enough to meet the King himself," said Mr King. After brushes with royalty in her youth and playing an important part in helping to set up branches of one of the nation's most famous shops, Mrs King died in 2002 aged 92. "After all the work she did in helping to set up these stores in the 1920s and 30s, the closure of them all today would have brought a few tears to her eyes if she was still alive," added Mr King.

  
  
• The first British Woolworth store in Church Street, Liverpool opened on 5th November 1909 - its 'Nothing over Sixpence' formula proved unbeatable.
  Just two days after Christmas 2008, 800 Woolworths stores closed, with the remainder closing on 6 January 2009 - 10 months short of the much vaunted 100th Birthday of the company.
  
  http://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/2000s-collapse.html
  Newmarket's Woolworths store opened sometime between 1926 and 1936.
  
  
• Newmarket Local History Society - The Rise and Fall of Woolworths in Newmarket:-
  http://www.newmarketlhs.org.uk/lhs6.htm
  
  
• 1936 Newmarket Directory
  F.W.Woolworth & Co
  
  
• 1926 Newmarket Street Directory
  Rutland House
  
  
• Cambridgeshire County Record Office
  Sale Particulars
  Reference 1026/SP/222-303
  Rutland House in High Street, Newmarket with outbuildings including stabling for 10 horses;
  Sherboro House in The Avenue with grounds. 1026/SP/261 18 May 1908
  
  
• Rutland House is not listed on any census prior to 1891 and even then it's listed along with the Golden Lion, with no obvious main occupant.
  
  

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• Building Changes

• Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch
  Records of Messrs Ennions, Solicitors, Newmarket
  Additions for garage, Rutland House, High St, for Dr E. Crompton (L.E.Cole) EF 506/6/1/17/564 Jul 1920
  
  
• Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch
  Newmarket Urban District Council Records
  Reference EF 506
  
• Two new bay windows, Rutland House, High St, for Mr Jarvis EF 506/6/1/H70 Aug 1893
  
  
• Planning Application - F/76/249
  Rutland House 42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 21-04-1976
  1. Rear public entrance to shop 2. Rear servicing and provision of larger yard.
  
  
• Planning Application - F/76/250/A
  Rutland House 42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 22-04-1976
  Advertisement - non- illuminated
  
  
• Planning Application - F/84/700/A
  F.W. Woolworth PLC 42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 29-11-1984
  Advertisement Illuminated
  
  
• Planning Application - F/84/707
  F. W. Woolworth PLC 42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 29-11-1984
  Repacement of shop front and rear entrance doors.
  
  
• Planning Application - F/86/885/A
  Woolworths 42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 10-12-1986
  Advertisement Illuminated
  
  
• Planning Application - F/90/568
  42 High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 18-12-1990
  Rebuilding of upper facade as amended by drawings received 3.1.91 and letter received 23.1.91.
  
  
• Planning Application - F/94/657
  Woolworths 42 The High Street Newmarket Suffolk
  Application Registered 23-11-1994
  Installation of a satellite dish.
  
  
• Planning Application - F/2008/0571/ADI
  Rutland House 42 High Street Newmarket
  Application Registered 09-01-2009
  Advertisement Illuminated
  Withdrawn
  
  
• Planning Application - F/2009/0507/FUL
  Applicant Q D Stores
  42 High Street Newmarket
  Application Registered 24-09-2009
  Resubmission of F/2009/0418/FUL - erection of a boundary wall/fence to form an enclosed outside retail area.
  
  
• From the above planning applications come the following details:-
  Woolworths added the rear door into the store in 1976 and reburbished entrance doors at both ends in 1984.
  Referring to all older pictures the front of Rutland House was always 3-storeys high ... Woolworths changed the front of the store in 1990 and recessed the 2nd floor windows as dormers into a new roofline.
  Previous to this sometime in the late 60s, early 70s Woolworths completely refurbirshed the internals of the store, removing the old round pillars that were so iconic of the early stores.
  When QD took over the store in 2009 they changed the rear entrance into an enclosed garden materials yard.
  
  

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• Many thanks to 'Old Newmarket' for the photos 'Woolworth 3d & 6d Store c.1930s' & 'Rutland House c.1910'.
  
  
• Photo 'Newmarket at War' by kind permission of the Newmarket Journal and the Newmarket Memories Facebook page.