A TOUR OF OLNEY MARKET PLACE - NUMBER 21
Dandelion (on left) and Bairstow Eves
No 21 Market Place, 2005
Number 21 Market Place was a drapery business when William Cowper first espied the fair Lady Austen entering its doors. Thomas Lovell was the occupier at the beginning of the eighteenth century and he was followed by Mr. Barnett, but he had left by 1833. The 1841 Census shows that a furniture broker, Henry Hurst resided there then.

By the 1870s a draper was back by the name of William Henry Hoskins and he continued until 1887 when Joseph Garner took over the business. He began to build up the 'longest shop front in Olney', as the premises were described in a 1907 almanac. It was recorded under the Garner name in 1936 when Thomas Garner and Violet Luttrell were living at Number 21, and his parents, Joseph and Katie Garner, were next door at Number 22.