H.R. Skinner - The Butchers - Prospect Place Wateringbury

A fantastic donation to the website by Brian Skinner who's Grandfather & Father owned the butchers shop at Prospect Place, Tonbridge Road Wateringbury.

I will let Brian tell the story of the photos as follows:


Pic. No. 1 shows the butchers shop at Prospect Place. I have included another picture, Pic. No. 2 which has been edited for other purposes thinking you might find it useful just for identifying the main characters. In addition to my grandfather, Harry Roland Skinner it shows Edwin, my father and Lesley HRs nephew. The man on the left kneeling down is Fred Baker who continued with my father until They both retired. Fred lived in a cottage below the Telegraph (the Inn now long gone) and had two children Gordon and Brenda. they would be in their 80s now but may still be living in the village. Regretfully I do not remember the names of others shown in the picture and believe some lived outside the village

Pic. No. 3 shows an  advert, dated 1935, promoting Frigidaire and referring to H.R.Skinner & Son. By calculation it shows that the shop was making use of mechanical refrigeration as early as 1928 when block ice was the most common method used.

Finally Pic. No. 4 is of H.R. and his wife.

FOOTNOTE. Whilst putting this together it became obvious that the Legend ‘Christmas circa 1937’ marked on Pic. No. 2, must be wrong. The 1935 Frigidaire picture shows the signwriting over the shop front as ‘& Son’ so our picture (which does not) must be earlier, possibly prior to 1931 when my parents were married.

Regards Brian.

Courtesy of Brian Skinner