Nos. 12 & 13 Wood Street

I met Ann for coffee this morning after she had walked in the pretty, i.e. long, way to town. By the time we left it was raining, and has been ever since.         
 
This is the next in my Wood Street project, two businesses but lumped together because they are part of the same building, and makes for a better photo.  Number 12, Gemini Shoes (there isn’t a number 11, presumably pulled down when they built the entrance to Bell Court) has been various shops in my memory of Stratford; another shoe shop, Raw, yet another jewellers, Swarovski and Oil & Vinegar, a gift shop.
 
Next door, number 13, is Paxton & Whitfield a fine food and cheesemonger, established in 1797 though origins dating back to 1740.  I can’t find when it was opened in Stratford; in 1891 it was owned by Thomas Such, a tobacconist  whilst number 12 was a butchers run by William Gibbs. 
 
Reference:  Civil Parish of Stratford On Avon, Eccl. District of Holy Trinity 1891.