Butcher's Shop of Thomas Barber at Benfleet, Essex

Butcher's Shop of Thomas Barber on the corner of High Street and Station Road at South Benfleet c.1909 [Author's Collection]. Map extract from Ordnance Survey Sheet 162 Southend-on-Sea - OS One-Inch Map Depicted 1952, Published 1961. Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

Butcher's Shop of Thomas Barber on the corner of High Street and Station Road at South Benfleet c.1909

Although it is hard to spot former retail premises, this building still stands on the corner of High Street and Station Road. The canopy extending across the pavement is marked on Essex [New Series 1913-] n XC.1, a map sheet published in 1922. This image pre-dates the survey and was captured around 1909. The man in the white coat is almost certainly the proprietor, Thomas Barber. He was recorded in the 1911 census at No.1 The Terrace, the stepped houses to the right of this photograph, most of which have been demolished.¹ Thomas Barber hailed from Thorpe in Norfolk. He married Ada Mary Harrison at Benfleet parish church earlier in the Edwardian period. She was the daughter of a farmer who had also migrated to Essex. Thomas and Ada Barber would later relocate to Southend-on-Sea where they operated another butchery on Fairfax Drive.

References
1. 1911 Census Piece No.10098 : Essex, South Benfleet, District 195, Enumeration District 04, Schedule 259.

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