The Sowmans began trading in Olney on the south side of the Market Place (No.32) during January 1889 when it was essentially an ironmongers. By the late 1930s the Sowman family had developed the business into a comprehensive emporium having added a radio shop, a extensive garage for motor sales, repairs and servicing, an agricultural machinery workshop and several other related businesses.
Sowmans bought No. 33 Market Place in or around 1900. They demolished the existing building and built an extensive three storey property on the site. The new shop at No. 33 opened for trade on 27th June, 1904.
The photograph above shows the shop front at No. 33 fitted with large plate glass windows, surely unusual at that time for a small rural town. Incidentally, the children in the foreground are known to be Sowman children; Ronald and John on the right and possibly Arthur and Philip on the left.
There is no doubt that the centrepiece of Sowmans business was the imposing three storey ironmongery shop, the front of which still exist virtually intact be seen on the south side of the Market Place. (now occupied by ‘Costa Coffee’.) Sowmans china shop was to the left of this building and to the right, the garage entrance and then the radio shop, all in all, a very large shop front. One of Sowmans sales slogans was “We sell everything from a tintack to a combine-harvester!” and another, “If you can think of it, Sowmans probably sell it!”
(See the row of petrol cans on the floor outside!)
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(See the row of cricket bats in the larger window)
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Sowman’s continued to run the business until 1962 when it was taken over in 1962 by Burgess’s. Photographs of the shop frontage in the Burgess era are difficult to come by; that below shows the motor showroom, next to the Cowper and Newton Museum, displaying the Burgess sign.who continued to run the business until 1984 when it finally closed.
Later, the former ironmongery premises (No. 33) were occupied by ‘The Olney Saddlery’ for around twenty years. In 2006 it became ‘Derby House’ for a few years, but is currently occupied by Costa Coffee. Incidentally the Sowman name remains on display in a floor mosaic in the entrance to No. 33, acknowledging the founding Sowman family.
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To learn more about Sowman family, their staff and the development of their business enterprise follow the suggested links below to webpages within the ODHS website.
A good start is to check out the full list of ‘Sowman’ pages and to click some of the links on that page. It has to be stated that the feature on Sowmans was a considerable undertaking by the ODHS and only made possible by the assistance of a number of Sowman decendants.
Another approach is to check out the Item 9 on the Olney Market Place – Heritage Trail (Smartphone/ Audio 2021 version) which gives an alternative presentation of Sowmans business activites with an impressive audio commentary. This trail includes the history of several selected properties around the Market Place.