A town of shopkeepers

Lambert & Kisby Grocers was proudly emblazoned on the sides of their two model T Ford delivery vans which could be seen rattling along the streets of Deeping and as far as Greatford and Helpston and all stops in between. Janet Johnson (née Lambert) remembered ‘The aroma of fresh bread filled the Market Place air and macaroons, coconut, ginger and fairy cakes filled the windows. The bakehouse boasted the kind of ovens with cast iron doors and long peels – handles with shards on the end that had been used for centuries.’

Mr Wigginton, Albert Buff and Charlie Scotney would don large white sacking oven gloves and brave the intense heat to take the selection of white, brown and delightfully shaped cottage loaves out of the oven on to the shelves where they were graded by size and colour. When Eric Kisby, smart in his crisply starched white apron and coat, was not serving in the shop, he could be found icing the cakes of celebration, weddings, birthdays and Christmas as advertised in neat gold lettering in the window.

Sweet jars jostled for position underneath the counter: humbugs, pear drops, aniseed balls and barley sugar to be weighed and poured into little white bags, tied with two ears at the end. At the back of the counter were little wooden draws with gold handles and varnished mahogany shelves with a treasure of currants and plump sultanas packed into parcels of pink and blue paper and underneath two big drawers filled up with sacks of tea and sugar ready to be weighed to the customers’ requirements. Bacon too was sliced for the customer on the marble slab at the other end of the shop with homemade pork pies, sausages and haslet, where the vinegar barrel filled bottles by the pint. Above there were packets of cornflakes, porridge and other breakfast cereals. Dates, with their boxes decorated with images of far-off lands, bottles of Camp coffee, Lux flakes, Robin Starch and carbolic soap all contributed to a heady smell of well-being that filled the shop and encouraged customers to sit awhile on the old fashioned light wood chairs, the kind with holes in the seat that would leave an impression if you sat on them long enough!

Occasionally the gentle pace of life would be interrupted when the Welland burst its banks and the stock would be lifted onto the higher shelves, the piano put on bricks and the only carpet in the best room rolled up and stored in the warehouse out of reach of the grimy waters.

Lambert and Kisby were brothers-in-law and had help to run the shop from Maggie Kisby (Eric’s sister) and two errand boys – at one time that post was filled by Walter Henfrey. The shop was rented from Mr Johnson of Elm House, Church Street, a man not noted for his carelessness with money, who suggested to Mr Lambert ‘to get up there and hold the bugger on’ when the chimney threatened to collapse after a particularly vicious gale.

Bert and Mabel (née Kisby) Lambert lived at the back of the shop with their two daughters, Janet (b.1926) and Monica (b.1933). They would peep through the disguised windows at unsuspecting customers! Meanwhile Eric and his wife Elizabeth (née Christian) lived at Anno Domino house in Church Street, Market Deeping, opposite The Vine. Eric and Elizabeth had been married by the Revd. Cox at the Priory Church, Deeping St James, in June 1927. The bride was given away by her father and wore a dress of crepe de chine with a wreath and veil. Mr L. Kisby was best man and Messrs B. Lambert and K. Kisby were groomsmen. The bridesmaids were Ada Kisby (bridegroom’s sister) who wore a dress of wine crepe de chine with a black hat and Mabel Lenton who wore a flowered voile dress with a hat to match. Bert, a Deeping Gate man, and Mabel had married at St Guthlac’s Church five years before with Maggie Kisby as bridesmaid and William Chambers of Spalding as best man.

Initially Bert and Mabel lived in Alford where Bert was a grocery manager, but in 1924 the opportunity to buy well-established grocery and baker’s shop L. E. Bland cropped up. Lucy Bland (b.1875) was the daughter of the manager of Market Deeping Gas Works, William and his wife Eleanor. Having trained as a confectioner she opened the Market

Deeping shop around 1903 when she was 28. She had another shop at 23 Bridge Street where the family had moved after William’s retirement and this was run by her brother, George and sister, Alice Maud.

The Market Deeping shop had a tea room and Lucy enlisted the help of her sister, Emma to run the business. In 1907 the shop hit the headlines when Fred Burns (26) a clerk, John Marshall (26) a fireman and John Evans (22) a labourer, committed a distraction theft and left the shop with a piece of pork pie and a piece of brawn without paying for them. The men were caught redhanded eating the pies by the Police Inspector and Constable. They were taken into custody, each blaming the other but they were all found guilty and sentenced to six weeks’ hard labour.

More happily, Lucy was in the Stamford Mercury in October 1910 when she was bridesmaid to her sister Alice Maud on her marriage to Daniel Wells at a large wedding held at the Priory Church. The bride wore a cream silk dress with a matching hat and was given away by her brother George. Horace Bland was the best man. A reception was held at the family home in Bridge Street, the couple setting up home at 118 Bridge Street where Daniel had his saddle and harness business.

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In 1912 Lucy married Charles (Chaddy) Barsby, the baker at the Deeping St James shop. When Lucy was expecting their son Bernard, born in 1915, Charles took over the running of the High Street shop. His cake baking skills were renowned and so Bert and Eric had bought into a lucrative business. The Barsbys moved further down the High Street and Charles became a pig and chicken farmer, continuing to supply the shop with meat.

Shortly after taking over the shop Bert Lambert called at the Buff household in Deeping St James. He asked if ‘young Buff was at home as he would like to talk to him?’ The pair went to talk by the van: ‘I understand that you have left your job in Peterborough? We want an assistant in the bakehouse to work under MrWiggington who is head baker for us.’ Albert Buff said that depended on the wages and the answer came back ‘27 shillings and six pence per week’. That must have been enough as Albert started work the following Monday. The following year Albert once again stepped into the breach when Eric Kisby had appendicitis and there was no one to drive the delivery van. Fortuitously Sergeant Carter was in the shop at the time and testified that Albert could drive – he just needed a licence. He ordered young Buff to take five shillings to the Post Office buy a postal order and then he would let him drive that day! Albert was pleased: he was not 16 till the following June and it had only cost him one shilling and six pence!

Albert stayed at the shop for nine years but in 1933 had to leave the bakery as he lost his hair and teeth because of the chemicals in the flour. The new self-raising flour that was being used at the time caused Albert to swell up and he lost three stone in a month and so at the age of just 24 he was told by the doctor to get an outside job. He was sad to leave the job he loved.

In March 1946 the landlords put the buildings up for auction at the White Horse. This consisted of a house with sales shop, bakehouse and other outbuildings in the High Street in the occupation of Lambert & Kisby, and two houses on the west side in the occupation of W. Wiggington and B. Searle. Three years later the lease was of the shop was sold to a Leicestershire firm. Bert and Mabel moved to Northfield Road, Peterborough, where Bert died in December 1954. Eric and Elizabeth moved to 87 High Street where the family had a sweet and toy shop. After his wife’s death, Eric moved to 34 Godsey Lane where he died in 1982.

The shop itself became Studio 12 in the early 70s, owned by the Smith family, and sold crafts, model making kits, candles and gifts. The embryonic Market Deeping Railway Club under Dave Smith (no relation) built a layout in one of the outbuildings. Later the premises became Deeping TV Video & Audio which is still only two doors away today.

Words: Judy Stevens Research: Joy Baxter, Albert Buff and Janet Lambert

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