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Read's D.I.Y. Stores The shop was first built and used as a stables or shippen, which housed animals such as horses etc. There is even one theory that it was used to house the horses on the coach run through from Exeter to Penzance. These stages used to stop at Henders Corner and change horses. The fresh horses would have been brought up from Lower Compton, and would have been held by the wall at The Rising Sun Inn, or in the shippen now known as Read's D.I.Y. Stores. The earliest date recorded on the deeds is August 25th 1887, when the owner of Compton Lodge also owned Shute Cottage as it was then known (behind The Rising Sun), the shippen now known as Read's D.I.Y. Stores and five acres of land, which in those days was mostly orchards or farmland. His name was Thomas Cuddeford. When he died on 26th March 1897 he left all of the property to his son of the same name. On 12th October 1905 his son died, and all of the property was left to his sister Elizabeth Durrent. On may 11th 1928 she sold the Lodge and the other buildings to Mr. William George Heath. On July 8th 1929 the lodge and the other buildings were sold to Mr. Barnet Cohen. On 9th July 1929 Mr. Cohen sold by way of granting a mortgage, all of the properties to Mr. Alfred Lewis Hodges. On 26th February 1930 Mr. Hodges sold the shippen/garage now known as Reads D.I.Y. Stores to two spinsters, Dorothy Cecil Cary-Elwes & Edith May Cary-Elwes although Mr. Cohen still granted the mortgage for the property. On the 24th of February 1931 Mr. Cohen sold the garage/shippen to Mr. Roach, a decorator, and he converted it into two small shops. On 12th April 1937 Mr. Roach sold the two shops to Mr. Frederick Thomas Webber & Mrs. Margaret Wilkins Webber. It was at this stage that the two Read sisters must have rented the shop from Mr. Roach, although the only reference to it having been rented was to a Vera Gertrude Norsworthy from 1952 until 1955, she rented the shop for one pound and ten shillings a week. The Read sisters ran the shop as Reads Stores and sold fruit, veg and other general supplies. On 6th April 1955 Mr. Roach sold the shops to Mr. Percy Kessell Bounty & Mrs. Muriel May Hooper. They ran the shop as a general stores for some time, and then changed it to a D.I.Y. store. At some time after this they employed a manager to run the business. In 1962 Mr. Bounty had a new shop front installed. In 1974 Mr. Bounty had a lean to type roof installed. On 22nd of February 1982 Mr. Bounty who had brought out his partner by then, sold the shop to Mr. David Edward Oakland & Mrs. Doreen Oakland. They ran the D.I.Y. business, improving it and adding pet foods and gardening supplies to the items stocked. On 18th January 1988 Mr. & Mrs. Oakland sold the business to the present owners. Since then the business has continued to flourish, with many new stock lines and services being added, but it's character has been kept as unchanged as possible.
Reads in the 90's Reads 2013 |
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