Wem High Street - No 17

Year Owner/Occupier Property Useage 1851 Thomas Vaughan Baker & Confectioner 1880 Thomas Vaughan Baker 1880 Edward Tomlins Baker 1891 Eva Tomlins (nee Stinchcombe) Grocer 1917 Eva Tomlins Grocer 1927, also 1930 Walter Stinchcombe Grocer 1934 Walter Stinchcombe Grocer 1937 T.O. Williams Baker and Cheese Specialist 1953 T.O Williams of Wem Baker and Delicatessen 1995 T.O Williams of Wem Baker and Delicatessen 1995 T.O Williams of Wem Baker and Delicatessen 2012 Clair & Phil Glover The Fruitful Deli - Bread and Cheeses

This extensive premises bordering on Leek Street has been a food shop for nearly 200 years.The Vaughans owned in in the mid 18thC, with Thomas Vaughan listed as the baker, with a wife and 6 children.Thomas Vaughan died in 1978 aged 72 and it would appear that the Tomlins took over the shop The Stinchcombes In the late 19th century, the Stinchcombes moved up from Gloucestershire. Joel Stinchcombe had run a Grocery and Drapers shop in Hawkesbury Upton, but came to Wem as a Draper's Clerk. By 1991, he was again listed as a Draper.He and his wife Sarah had 7 children. Eva Georgina married Edward Tomlins of the long-established Tomlins bakery business around 1880. They had 1 child, Edward, who lived until 1968.Edward Snr. the father did not live long after the marriage, and Eva ran the bakery business until the mid 1920s, when her brother Walter took it over.In 1911, she was listed as living with her neice Georgina and her nephew, George Griffeths who is listed on the Wem War memorial after being killed in WW1. Walter lived in Yardley (Birmingham) as a baker's assistant in the early 20thC. Many of the family graves are to be found in the cemetary at the School House in Chapel Street. Eva died aged 94 in 1953. Eva's brother, Walter Stinchcombe took over the shop in the 1920s and retained it until his death in March 1934. After that, it became the Headquarters of T.O. Williams of Wem who were there for over 70 years, before it was sold to 2 entrepreneurs in the early years of the 21stC.The old company ran shops in 4 other towns - the others being in Market Drayton, Whitchurch and Shawbury. There were also shops in Shrewsbury and they also had a shop in Harlescott. One employee remembers all the training being done at Wem, and staff being taken out for a Christmas meal at the Castle Inn across the road. Sadly,in the latter part of the 2000 decade, the bakery needed extensive refurbishment and was closed, with bread being bought in. In 2011, new owners, Phil and Clair Glover who had run the town paper shop, took over and rebranded it as 'The Fruitful Deli'. 1902 Advertisement for premises