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At the start of the 20th century part of this property was leased to a butcher called William Jenkins. He was here for only a short time as on 3rd November 1905 another butcher, Mr Leigh James, moved to this much larger property from just a few doors away.
Born in Cheltenham in 1875, Leigh James served his apprenticeship with a High Street butcher when he was just a lad. His father, also called Leigh, was a dairyman born in 1848 at Naunton, in Toddington, where his father was a farmer. Leigh (senior) had a brother, Thomas James, who owned a butchers’ shop in Great Norwood Street.
Leigh James (junior) married Louisa Day in 1897, when he was already the proprietor of a shop at 170 Bath Road, having previously been the manager there. In 1901 they lived with their children, Louisa, Leigh and Annie, together with a domestic servant called Rose Fluck (aged 14), at Everton Lodge. They shared that address with Sarah Dolman, the widow of William Dolman, the chemist, and her children.
By 1905 Leigh and Louisa were living above the 160 Bath Road shop, when it was known as 21 Upper Bath Road. They made their home here and the business was very much a family concern, with some of their eventually 11 children helping out.
As with many businesses at the time, the shop stayed open late into the evening and especially on a Saturday, when a bargain Sunday roast could be had as shop keepers sold off any left-over food.
A well-built man, with a shock of white hair and a bushy moustache, Leigh James was a popular member of the community. He became president of many sporting clubs in Leckhampton, where he lived with his family at Bartlow on Leckhampton Hill. In 1922 he became a town councillor, and then an alderman, and served with distinction on the Maternity and Child Welfare committee. He was also a governor of Cheltenham Grammar School and a director of various companies associated with the meat trade.
He retired from the council in 1949 due to poor health and died, aged 75, on December 27th that year, at home. In paying tribute to Leigh James the Mayor of Cheltenham said that the town had “lost a devoted son”.
Reg Pitt came from Gloucester and had been a butcher since 1956. He too had several shops in Cheltenham. In 1991 he took the panels off the front of the shop, which the previous owner had covered, revealing the name of Leigh James. He then had the tiles renovated putting on his own name.
For this restoration work he was awarded a Civic Award from the Borough Council in association with Cheltenham Civic Society. He was in Bath Road for 16 years and supplied many of his customers with the odd recipe or two. He retired in 1993 and in May of that year Robin Jenkins took over.
Please see our local memories page for this property.
Researcher: Marilyn West
Updated: Stuart Manton (September 2019)
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