11 High Street
About the Building | Recent History | Previous Occupiers | Other Information
| Address: | 11 High Street |
| Present Occupier: | Costa Coffee |
| Present Owner: | |
| Ground Floor: | Coffee shop |
| Other Floors: | |
| Date when first used by present occupier: | ?2015 |
About the Building
Information from Abergavenny Local History Society survey 1980:
Circa 1905. Previous building said to have been stables for the house next door, owned by the iron masters Hill, Hopkins & Co (now the National Westminster Bank). Present premises purpose-built for grocers or commercial use with a hoist at the back for lifting heavy bags to store in the loft, with very close joists for heavy load-bearing. Brick, with much carefully detailed terracotta work
Recent History
2013 – to date Costa Coffee [2013 date Source 1: Monmouthshire Planning application DC/2013/00508 Amended application form “House Name: Stead & Simpson PLC” Source 2: Google Maps Street View 2013]
Prior to Costa, this was Stead & Simpson, shoe shop (exact dates uncertain). In 2004 Stead & Simpson applied for planning permission for a new shop front [Source: Monmouthshire Planning application Ref M9049 New Shop Front Stead & Simpson 12 Feb 2004]
Vin Sullivan & Son Ltd : (from 1960 to ?exact date uncertain but adverts in Abergavenny Chronicle seen up to 1982) [Information from Abergavenny Local History Society Street Survey 1980]
The building was owned at that time by Foster Estate, formerly Fosters, Hill (who were builders of Fosterville Crescent). Sullivans was a specialist greengrocers/fish/deli. (A local landmark and much missed when it closed (became a wholesalers, still in existence) [Information from Abergavenny Local History Society Street Survey 1980]
From at least 1926 to 1960 : Star Supply Stores, by then owned by George Mason. They moved to 4a High Street [Information from Abergavenny Local History Society Street Survey 1980]
Previous Occupiers
| Year | Name | Detail | Source |
| 1937 | Star Supply Store |
Provision dealer |
Kelly |
| 1934 | Star Supply Store | Provision dealer | Kelly |
| 1930 | Star Supply Store | Provision dealer | Car/Npt & Dis |
| 1926 | Star Supply Store | Provision dealer | Kelly |
| 1920 | Frederick John Vaughan | Grocer | Kelly |
| 1914 | Frederick John Vaughan | Grocer | Kelly |
| 1910 | James Edward Jenkins | Grocer | Kelly |
| 1906 | Bells Stores | Grocer | Kelly |
| 1901 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Kelly |
| 1895 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Kelly |
| 1891 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Kelly |
| 1884 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository / Berlin wool and German toys | Kelly |
| 1879 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Thacker |
| 1877 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Owen |
| 1875 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Mer & Croc |
| 1871 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Kelly |
| 1865 | Miss Eliza Green | Fancy repository | Webster |
| 1862 | Elizabeth Taylor | Fancy repository; agent for Christian Knowledge Society and toy dealer | Morris & Co |
| 1858 | Elizabeth Taylor | Fancy repository | Slater |
| 1850 | Elizabeth Taylor | Fancy repository | Pigot |
| 1844 | Elizabeth Taylor | Fancy repository | Slater |
| 1835 | Elizabeth Taylor | Fancy repository | Pigot |
Other Information
Costa Coffee : a wholly-owned subsidiary of Whitbread, now the largest coffee chain in Britain. Founded by Italian immigrant brothers Bruno & Sergio Costa in London in 1971 [Source : en.wikipedia.org]
Information from Abergavenny Local History Survey 1980:
Vin Sullivan started as shop assistant with Ruthers. In 1926 he moved to Hereford to manage Macfisheries. He joined up in 1940-45, then restarted with Ruthers in 1946. In 1960, Vin Sullivan started up on his own. The shop was run by his son John at the time of the last survey. Vin Sullivan was also founder of Abergavenny Thursdays F A Club
There is a handwritten addition to the “previous occupiers” page on the original survey (with initials “TDS”), stating : Herbert Smith, Linen & Woollen draper and haberdasher, 11 High Street. 1811, 1822-3,1835, 1842-4, 1850, 1852
Am not sure how the above correlates with list of previous occupiers, there is no further information as to where this information came from
From a newspaper cutting, circa 1906, now in the Gwent Record Office “In making some excavations in the shop of Mr George Green, in High Street (where Bell’s Stores now stand), the workmen discovered a great quantity of human bones and where the main sewer was cut along High Street, human bones were found at a depth of a few feet….”
Adverts in Abergavenny Chronicle :
Vin Sullivan, Fishmongers, greengrocer – ads in 1962, 1967, 1968, 1969 (“female staff required” – 2 page advert); 1970,1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1982
Stead & Simpson, shoe shop : ad in 1989
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