The history of
10 Market Place.

10 Market Place stands in Shepton Mallet’s historic market square. The building’s history, researched and compiled by Len Ware, dates its origins to the sixteenth century.

The story becomes clearer in the nineteenth century, as records and memories introduce the shopkeepers, families and changing trades that made their home here.

Francis Porch Parker is the first recorded occupier of 10 Market Place in the building’s history. He travelled the country with a dog-pulled cart, collecting marine merchandise, and expanded his business to include glass and earthenware.

In 1848, his son Frederick J. Parker succeeded him. Frederick also inherited responsibility for managing the market shambles.

A surviving advertisement presents Fred. J. Parker’s business as a wholesale and retail furnishing warehouse, with china, glass and earthenware, furniture available to order, and goods and cutlery offered for hire.

Mrs Agnes Laver’s recollection of the shop in 1880 brings its everyday trade to life. Brown glazed salting pans, wash basins and jars stood on the pavement and road outside. Families salted butter in large brown jars to keep it for winter; she remembered it costing a shilling a pound.

Frederick Parker died during the 1880s. His obituary in the Shepton Mallet Journal remembered a generous, sympathetic supporter of local causes. He lent goods from his stock for school treats, tea meetings and other gatherings, saving the organisers trouble and worry.

The obituary also recorded his longstanding membership of the Oddfellows and his role in a Druid fraternal order, where he held the degree of Past Arch and was a member of the Grand Lodge of England.

Under Cornelius Pursey, No. 10 continued to sell china, glass and earthenware. Domestic ironmongery had joined the shop’s advertised range.

A surviving handwritten bill on C. Pursey’s Market Place letterhead offers a small glimpse of the business in 1926.

John Edward Hooper, known as Jack, bought No. 10 and turned it into a shoe shop. The business continued through the following decades until the 1970s.

Jack’s daughter, Shepton Mallet resident Chloe Baker, remembers playing in boxes in the middle-floor offices as a small child.

She also recalls her grandfather cobbling shoes at a sewing machine beside a top-floor window, looking out over the market square.

Chloe Baker, daughter of John Edward Hooper, whose memories help tell the building’s story.

Palmer Snell moved into the property, offering the services of chartered surveyors, auctioneers, estate agents and valuers.

Outside, the north-eastern block of the market square was demolished to make way for The Centre, a gift to the town from the Showering family.

The next years brought several changes. Dora’s Coffee Shop was followed by Ashton House, a dress shop and tea room selling Mandy Marsh dresses and jackets, alongside Sloggi underwear.

Mendip Needlecrafts then offered a range of tailoring services. The original account records Dora’s Coffee Shop again later, with a student menu and coffee from 70p.

The individual dates of these changes are not recorded, but together they show how often the shop adapted to the town around it.

The BBC chose Shepton Mallet for Turn Back Time, using empty shops to explore changing trades and shopping habits. The building’s history names 1887, 1914, the 1930s, the 1960s and the 1970s among the periods recreated.

Local residents were invited to take part. Families lived in the shops in period clothes, experiencing Victorian conditions with candles at night, chamber pots under the beds, and water fetched from the trough in the square.

No. 10 first became a Victorian dressmaker’s with fashion designer Gill Cockwell. For the 1960s, it became a hair salon, where Gill learned to create bouffant beehives.

The shop’s final role was a 1970s record store with music enthusiast David Lashmar. When the film crews left, No. 10 stood empty.

Barry Higgins brought his successful B.D. Biker Clothing business from Cheddar to No. 10. The shop traded until 2017, ending with Barry’s Ho Ho Ho Christmas pop-up.

From 2017 to 2022, naturopath retailer Art of Essence occupied the shop. A media outlet used the offices above.

Interim Spaces purchased 10 Market Place in September 2023. The charity planned a retail incubator in the shop and an affordable programme of music and wellbeing classes in the top-floor studio.

The retail incubator forms part of the building’s recent history. The studio programme continues upstairs, with classes and affordable space for local teachers and workshop organisers.