| Date | 14 October 2011 |
|---|---|
| Source | Slough Observer |
| Reference | VP-0003 |
| Volume | Views of the Past |
| Collection | Views of the Past |
Transcript
Flames consume store
View of the Past by Elias Kupfermann
I WAS delighted to meet up with Geoff Doe, Grandson of Regiment Sergeant Major Bill Doe, who featured in my column a couple of weeks ago.
He brought a number of interesting papers, including W.R. Doe’s original diary and a scrapbook. These related to his military career and also details of his life in Slough from the last decade of the reign of Queen Victoria.
Amongst the papers was a photograph of Butler and Bowden, a shop which occupied three properties on the north side of Slough High Street. Doe’s diary gives an amazing, detailed insight into what it was like working in a shop at the end of the 19th century.
Butler & Bowden sold drapery, clothes, boots and furniture. William Doe got a job as a shop assistant there in March 1891. He received an annual wage of £25 plus 1 1/2d in the pound in commission. He lived above the shop on the top floor with five male shop assistants and seven female assistants. They had their meals with the owners of the store, Mr and Mrs Bowden.
The shop opened from 8 am to 8 pm Mondays to Thursdays, closed at 9 pm on Fridays and on Saturdays remained open until 10 pm. The Bowden family also owned other properties in both Slough and Windsor. It was part of Mr Doe’s job to collect rent every Monday from four shops and three houses in Windsor and six villas in Wellington Street, Slough.
Also, rent was collected from four shops in Slough High Street – these were Graces (a fruiterer), Darville the Barber, Giddings the Sadler and a milk shop on the High Street.
After a year fighting in South Africa in the Boer War, William Doe returned to England in 1901 and started to work once more at Butler & Bowdens.
In January 1903 disaster struck; the shop was totally destroyed by fire. The Slough and Windsor and Eton Fire Brigade were called out, but the complete contents of the shop were consumed by the fire.
A porter was lighting up the shop, and the taper he was using caught some adjacent curtains, and within 10 minutes the shop was a mass of flames.
A number of the citizens of Slough helped to carry out some of the female assistants caught in the blaze, many of whom were in a fainting condition. The damage amounted to some £16,000.
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