A TOUR OF OLNEY MARKET PLACE - NUMBER 7

Jays of Olney
No 7 Market Place, 2005

Number 7 Market Place was the home of the Smith family, who were Quakers. Mrs Hannah Smith had been a widow for some years before the 1833 Levy . She may have carried on her husband's general household business as the shop fittings were not removed until after her death.

Her daughter Ann continued to live there with her disabled sister, Mary. They were both listed as 'Gentry' in the 1841 Census. They were certainly wealthy and built and endowed the Almhouses and British School in Weston Road. Miss Ann Smith was a meticulous record keeper and her account book was kept up to within 10 days of her death at the age of 83 in 1851.

Beyond the gateway into the backyard of Number 7 was an adjoining cottage which was let to various tenants, always female. After Ann Smith's death, William Hipwell of the Bull acquired it and incorporated it into his establishment.

By 1878 Henry Jackson was using Number 7 for his printing and stationery business and from here issued his annual almanacs. He was followed by William Charles Lyon in 1886 and W F Knight joined him in 1892. From the following year he ran the business under his own name of William Inkerman Knight and was popularly known as 'Inky' Knight. By 1924 Albert Henry Stanley had become the owner and every Friday printed the local newspaper, 'the Olney Advertiser' (known affectionately as 'The Buster'), on the premises . Albert and Jenny Maud Stanley are recorded as residing at Number 7 in 1936.