3-7 The Thoroughfare
Two premises in one 17th C building, the left-hand side lost its upper floor when the ceiling was raised for a new plate glass window
This long 17th Century building in the heart of Harleston was, since at least 1839, two shops with accommodation around the business premises. The steeply pitched pantiled roof with gabled ends indicates this was originally another of Harleston’s thatched buildings.
Back in 1839, widowed Sarah Habberton owned this entire building on the corner of Old Chapel Yard; not named for the Old Chapel of Ease but for the non-conformist chapel built in the yard by John Vipond – now a double dwelling.
The Old Chapel and Former Parish Coal Store in Old Chapel Yard
All the censuses between 1851 and 1911 show that the Ablett family were making Harness on the left hand side whilst the Chilvers family were making gloves on the right hand side – the women folk taking over when the founding men died.
See the Chilvers shop door next to the house door, before the casement window was also given a bow front.
Sadly tragedy, in the form of lightning, hit the Abletts in 1861. The son of the house William Thomas was reading in window of his house. when a major storm was raging; the lad was struck by lightning.
DISTRICT INTELLIGENCE. Harleston. During the severe tempest on Saturday, the eldest son of Mr. Ablett, a boy of about fourteen years of age, was struck by lightning and killed, whilst in the house reading by the window.
And there in the Parish Registers we find:-
At the turn of the Century the Chilvers home and shop was given another bow window whilst Ablett’s old premises had such a tall plate glass window inserted that the entire top floor disappeared!
This new frontage featured in ‘The Secret Tunnel’- a children’s film shot locally in 1948 when the gents Outfitter’s was changed into a suspicious Antiques shop for filming purposes! Having seen Chilvers old shop being refitted in the early 21st C -I can confirm that ancient beams and the remnants of an old fireplace lurk behind the modern shop fittings!
www.reelstreets.com/films/secret-tunnel-the