Rushden Research Group: Maypole Dairy Co.

The Maypole Dairy Co.

The Maypole was established around 1900 at 58 High Street.

Maypole Dairy Co. shop front & detail

	Note the DMC and carved panel. The chain stay for the blind and the hanging handle to pull out the blind on sunny days.
In 1902 the Maypole Dairy Co. Ltd. put in plans to alter the shop front at 58 High Street at the end of Lion Terrace.

Rushden Echo, Dec 28^th 1917

The Maypole Dairy Co. Served over 2000 customers before 11a.m. on Saturday last, and it is estimated that the queue of people standing two deep would have reached from St. Mary's Church to the railway bridge.

Painted by Clive Wood when he knew it was to be demolished - 1992

The Maypole Dairy opened around 1900 at number 58 High Street as butter dealers and in June 1926 they moved across the road to number 97, where they expanded their trade to groceries.

The old shop front was adorned by these magnificent carvings. This was overpainted several times during the life of the shop.

When the front was redesigned the carvings were saved by Clive Wood, and he removed the paint to reveal the full details of the carved panels.

Below is the mosaic floor panel just inside the door at 58, but the cameraman arrived too late to get the whole!

demolished 1992

Central High Street in about 1955 - at 97 High Street

The business moved to this shop at 97 High Street in 1926.
No firm date for closure has been found, but possibly the late 1960s.

Woolworths and the Maypole - two High Street institutions of the 1950s that have now gone.

F W Woolworth and Co Ltd. opened their bazaar in 1926 and it closed in 2009.

This picture was taken when there were just four days to go in the final sale.

It then opened as Heron's frozen food store. This also closed within a year, and it is currently selling second-hand items recycled from the local dump (2011). In 2012 it is to be another coffee shop.

Index of All Traders