This building is where Bayfields Opticians is currently situated, at 31 High Street, Nantwich. James Hall tells us us “Old people now living remember an open shop that stood in the centre of the town, on the site of handsome premises now occupied by Mr. S. Harlock, where Mr. E. Barrowcliffe, butcher, killed and dressed his meat, before exposing it for sale”.
Lost Houses in Nantwich tells us that Richard Stretch, of Messrs R and J Stretch, had a draper’s shop here.
Samuel Harlock (1823-1891) was a leading business man in Nantwich. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to Joseph Stretch (Richard’s son).
Joseph Stretch died on 20 Jul 1846 and Samuel Harlock takes over the business.
By the 1851 census, Samuel Harlock is shown as a draper employing 11 men and 1 women. Samuel is shown as the head of the household. His older brother Thomas is also living there (who is a draper and grocer) with his younger brothers Joseph (who is a grocer) and George (who is an assistant draper).
In April, 1855, Stretch and Harlock supplied 2 pieces of Grey Calico, 3 pieces of Blue Print, 1 piece of Striped Cotton, 1 pieces of Flannel, 2lbs White Thread, 2lbs Black Thread and 6 Reels Cotton to Nantwich Workhouse. In June , 1855 they supplied the workhouse with 2 dozen Boys Hats, and 4 pieces of Black tape.
On 18 August 1857 Samuel Harlock married Joseph Stretch’s eldest daughter Mary. The business grew and Samuel was involved in various societies. He became an MP, and in 1886 campaigned to raise money for a free public library. In 1887 this dream was realised. Today the Free Library building is where the Museum can be found (see here for more details).
One of Joespeh Stretch’s sons, Richard Harper Stretch (1837-1926) was born in Nantwich before emigrating to the United States. In 1909 he self-published a reminiscence, “My Life: 1837-1909.” In this he remembers the High Street shop:
“My father’s shop, stood facing the church yard on the corner of High Street. The look of the outside does not come vividly before me, but a photograph, which until recently I did not know existed, shows an old brick building, with a rounded front window of small pains, and horribly dressed according to our present standard of such things. It is what we call a drapers shop, better known in America as a Dry Goods Store, and I have a vague recollection that it had been grandfather’s at one time, with the front door cut in two across the middle and a bell to announce the entrance of customers”.
He goes on to describe the shop (1837 – 1846):
“The interior is more familiar. It was of good size but ceiling was low, and was separated from the counting room or office in the rear by a narrow, tile floored passage leading to a few cramped rooms, and a tiny triangular backyard. As though yesterday, I can see my father in the counting room, make his quill pens, for he would never use steel (old fashioned) and drying his writing by touching the wet ink with his fingers tip, and wiping it on his hair, a trick which has stuck to me through life”.
This picture, from the 1912 Johnson’s Directory, shows Stretch and Harlock’s old premises in the High Street in 1850:
In 1861, his brother George is living on Welsh Row, and in 1871 George is at Townsend House (see here for more details) and is shown as a clothing manufacturer employing 23 men, and 201 women, and farmer of 33 acres employing 3 men, and one servant. George Harlock & Co went into liquidation in 1881, but the Harlock family still owned the factory after this.
By the 1881 census, Samuel Harlock is employing 29 assistants.
In 1912 the store had a major refurbishment. The picture below shows the store in 1910:
and this one is 10 years later:
This picture, from the 1912 Johnson’s Directory, shows their new premises at the corner of Pepper Street Chuchyardside:
This branch was a mens’ outfitters. By this time the High Street branch was selling carpets as well as ladys’ clothes. Stretch and Harlock also became funeral directors.
Samuel Harlock lived at Brookfield House in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses. Samuel Harlock was active in the temperance movement in Nantwich. He was a nonconformist, and nonconformist fetes were often held at Brookfield. When Samuel Harlock died, in 1891, his estate was worth £12,683, 13s 3d. Today this amount would be worth over a million pounds.
In the Duties on Land Values Survey, taken in 1915, Stretch and Harlock had a shop at Churchyardside, a factory and work rooms on Pepper Street, and a warehouse next door to Townsend House on Welsh Row.
A long standing resident of Nantwich, Nancy Dutton, remembered Lady Delves Broughton bringing her two monkeys into town in the mid 1930s. She took them into Stretch & Harlocks from where they escaped through an open window. Eventually they were enticed down from a tree in the church graveyard opposite the store. Nancy worked in the haberdashery department there, and her contempories of a similar age were Connie Wallace and Barbara Balderston (whose father Herbert, ran the ironmomger’s shop at 21/23 High Street).
In 1971 Bratts took over the business. On the 1 February 1986, Bratts moved out of the High Street premises to the store on the corner of Pepper Street and Churchyardside. This building is now occupied by Webb House Furnishers.