Stephen Nunn probes history of 1 Silver Street in Maldon

It is true that ‘The Blue Room’, as it is now called, is an annex to next door, but it hasn’t always been that way. A simple look at the external architecture indicates that the two buildings are quite different in their make-up.

Whereas the façade of the hotel is of Suffolk white brick (albeit hiding a structure that dates back in parts to the 14th Century) number 1, on the other hand, is in brown stock.

The official Grade II listing describes it as “early 19th Century…(of) 3 storeys…(and with) a 19th Century shop front (on the ground floor)”.

Standing on the corner of Coach Lane, those ground floor windows, the facia pilasters, corner entrance and quirky Doric door case, give it more than a touch of the Dickensian.

And then there is that odd white rectangle shape with cut corners, painted up on the brickwork between the first and second floors.

Early photographs reveal that it was once an advert for the shop which read “W.F. Lewsey. Saddler and Harness Maker”.

That would have been William Frederick Lewsey, who was born in Coggeshall in 1878 and married a Maldon girl - Naomi Golding (the daughter of a boot maker).

Having been variously a farm labourer and horseman, William worked for the harness maker, Charles William Eve.

Tragically, Eve committed suicide in 1919 and William Lewsey then set up in his own right.

By 1925 the trades directories have him working out of 1 Silver Street – hence that ghost sign.

William was still there in 1929, but after that the paper trail goes cold. What we do know, however, is that William Lewsey wasn’t the first and he wouldn’t be the last tradesman to be based at number 1.

Before it became The Blue Room, you may remember it as AGH Engraving, who gave their address as “The Blue Boar Shop”.

Travelling back in time, Herbert Springett was a well-respected Maldon photographer who had his shop at 59 High Street.

Not many know, however, that before being in that High Street location, in 1966, he too was at 1 Silver Street.

And talking of photographs, a picture that I have seen, dated 1942, shows Maldon’s one-time MP, Tom Driberg (aka Lord Bradwell) standing in front of number 1, which at that time was clearly a printers – ‘Shearcroft Printing Co Ltd’.

Prior to that, in 1939, we have a “master harness maker” there – not William Lewsey, but another William - William D Taylor.

He had his shop at number 1 and lived above with his wife Rose (who worked in the kitchen of the Blue Boar) and their only daughter, Olive.

As we now know, William Taylor was the second harness maker at number 1, having succeeded William Lewsey.

Before Lewsey, the building was a butchers – a pork butchers to be precise.

From 1906 to 1914 the butcher was Joseph Chinnery. The 1911 census shows him there (aged 51) with his Bradwell-born wife, Hannah (48), their 23-year-old son George and a widowed boarder called Mary Walker (74).

Joseph’s predecessor was another pork butcher – George Ketley (born in Langford in 1856).

The last reference to George at number 1 is dated 1902, but the earliest is 1886. The 1891 Census shows him living and working in Silver Street with his wife, Maria.

Still in the 1880s, Mrs Mary Ann Bickmore was the pork butcher, but doubled as an “earthen ware dealer”.

Trades Directories list her at number 1 in 1881 and 1882 and the 1881 census has her as a widow, aged only 30.

Her husband, Henry Bradford Bickmore, a carpenter, had died the previous year and lies buried in Heybridge churchyard.

Mary Ann had another carpenter as a boarder – 75-year-old widower Henry Mason.

So we have gone all the way back to 1881 – some 141 years from ‘The Blue Room’ to the earliest (as far as we know) pork butcher, Mrs Bickmore.

Before that the census returns (of 1841 through to 1871) are not at all clear about a building next to the Blue Boar. In addition, the 1873 Ordnance Survey has an odd-looking square with a cross in it where number 1 should be.

READ MORE>>> Popular DJ staging a talk on 'risking his life' as a pirate radio DJ

Perhaps we have arrived at the origins of the building - although I wouldn’t regard a date between 1873 and 1881 as “early 19th Century”.

Further research might pinpoint the origins of 1 Silver Street more precisely, but its known story so far has revealed it as so much more than just an annex to the Blue Boar.

It is a place that, over time, has been characterised by the pungent aromas of developing fluid, printers' ink, dressed leather and pork sausages.

Some years ago I was allowed to explore a cellar beneath the building. I recall seeing what looked very much like the entrance to a brick-lined tunnel.

It seemed to extend under Silver Street, heading towards the triangular tower of All Saints' Church. I went along it as far as I could and then it was blocked off.

Clearly 1 Silver Street hasn’t yet given up all of its secrets and there is still more hidden history to be discovered there.