A TOUR OF OLNEY MARKET PLACE - NUMBERS 27 & 28
Punch Opticians
Nos 27 & 28 Market Place, 2005
Numbers 27 and 28 Market Place are on the south side of the Market Place. At the beginning of the 19th century it was still one of the two Cock Inns, opposite each another at the entrance to Silver End. The landlord was Mr Munday, who a few years previously had written a letter to a customer who had not paid his bill which makes very amusing reading. By the 1820's Leonard Lord was landlord, living there with his wife Mary and two children.

By the 1851 Census John Harding, aged 33, was recorded as the Beer Seller, but no further census entries record it as a public house. The premises were converted into two cottages, and like many properties in Olney, had one front door opening onto a through passageway with entrance doors opposite one another on either side of the passage.

In the 1880's Number 27 was the home of Joe Huckle, a chimney sweep. Thomas Perkins, a carpenter, lived next door at Number 28 but from the 1890s he advertised his building and undertaking business from Number 27. By the 1920's Rowland Perkins had followed his father as builder and undertaker and In 1936 the Register of Electors recorded Roland and his wife Rhoda residing there.