Restaurant is part of High Street's ever evolving history

When it comes to places to eat one, we are really spoilt for choice here in Maldon.

There’s my friend Jhual’s Maldon Spice, on the corner of Butt Lane, at 111 High Street. Almost opposite him, at number 116, in what I still think of as The Gables, is the Indian Chefs (until recently the Chutney House).

Moving down the High Street, at 137 is the Moonlight Balti Express takeaway and further still, Maldon Tandoori (191-193) with the Raj takeaway next door at 195.

Into Mill Road, at number 24, the man who originally brought Indian cuisine to Maldon (in 1978), and another good friend of mine, Abdul, has his ever popular Balti Bhujon.

And now we have yet a further option – King Traditional Indian Curries. Located at 136 High Street it is billed as a place that blends different spices to produce “wonderful and healthy Indian traditional curries” – to eat in or takeaway.

Prior to their occupation of the building, 136 was, until its closure on July 29, 2023, Maldon Pie ‘N’ Mash, serving the great British dish which originated in Queen Victoria’s London Docks.

Prior to that it was ‘Mainly Hers’, a ladies' retailers, which ceased trading in 1995.

My earliest memories of 136 High Street are when it was a greengrocers called George and Ivy. I used to accompany my Nan there when she bought her fruit and veg.

To the right of the entrance in a cement block on the path you can still see their names George & Ivy and the date 1971.

The concrete block bearing George and Ivy's names (Image: Stephen Nunn)

But look above that modern shop front and there is, what appears to be, an old red brick structure with two sash windows at first floor level.

For a time these had louvered shutters and their paint-stained ghosts can just be made out on the brickwork.

This upper area is now 136a, with a ground floor entrance by the side of the restaurant.

Originally 136 (and what is now 136a) were a single private house and that was the arrangement until the retail unit was built below.

The front door (with its well-trodden step) was beneath the right hand window and a ground floor window was under the left one.

The roof line hasn’t really changed and the stack is still there, albeit minus its pots. That feature is, in itself, a bit of a clue as to the building's age.

As well as that physical evidence, preserved in the Essex Record Office are the 'Deeds of a dwelling house, 136 High Street, St Mary, Maldon', with a date range of 1742 to 1935.

So who once lived in that house? Rose, Frederick and Ida Gridley were there on the eve of the war, in 1939. In 1911, according to the census return, it was home to the Hedgecocks – 27-year-old Bertie Hedgecock (a timber porter), his 24-year-old wife Ethel (née Sayward) and their one-year-old adopted son Charles Lee.

They later moved over the road to 157 High Street (which is now part of the Ocean Chinese Restaurant).

Going back in time, in 1901, 136 was home to 36-year-old London-born Alfred Stuart (a grocer's assistant), wife Maud (née Butcher), son Dudley, Alfred’s father-in-law Daniel Butcher and his sister-in-law Miriam.

Going back to 1891 they were all at 136, except Daniel Butcher (born in Tillingham in 1833) who was the head of the household was a 'Mariner Seas'.

Daniel had cut his maritime teeth in the 1860s, as the mate of the 80-ton coasting trade schooner Jane Jackson out of Goole, on East Yorkshire’s River Ouse.

136 High Street when it was a house (Image: Ann Puttock)

Although house numbers are not given, it looks as if Daniel and wife Zillah (née Raven), their two daughters, his sister-in-law and a lodger also lived at 136 in 1881. Prior to 1881, it is difficult to positively identify the occupants of 136, but it was certainly there and, according to those deeds, had been since at least 1742.

The relatively modern conversion of the ground floor to retail, therefore, belies the building's age, but what a lot of activity it has seen down the centuries.

Today even those who visit it, or work there probably don’t give the bricks and mortar a second thought.

I know that when I was researching it, most of the older residents that I spoke to didn’t know much about it, or really rate it architecturally.

It just goes to show that almost every one of our High Street buildings have age-old tales to tell.

This latest chapter, as a traditional Indian restaurant, is part of that ever evolving story.