With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, members & friends
Continuing last month’s theme of characters in the commercial life of the town in the late Victorian period, the name of John Kittow soon crops up. He was a Cirencester man through and through, born in the Shambles, that warren of buildings in the Market Place, in 1819 and only a few years before they were cleared away to create the present-day open space. His father, another John, was in business as a saddler.
Kittow‘s main trade was as a hairdresser, firstly from his shop in the 1860s in Cricklade Street and from 1872 we find him at 67 Castle Street where his family business was still going when Cirencester’s best-known photographer W. Dennis Moss captured this scene in the early years of the 20th century. Kittow’s striking hanging signs were period pieces in themselves, advertising the full range of hairdressing skills plus a specialism in umbrellas, assembled and sold from his shop.
Shopkeepers needed to be enterprising in order to survive and prosper, and John Kittow and his son, also John, certainly were. The Standard newspaper referred in 1859 to ‘some admirable photographic portraits, produced by Mr Kittow, hairdresser’; these would have been carte-de visites. Only a few years later, ‘J.C. Kittow, begs most respectfully to inform his Friends that he has lately combined the Cigar and Tobacco Trade with his own Business’ and offers ‘moderate charges to obtain a share of their support.’ He particularly promoted ‘A choice Selection of Meerchaum Pipes.’
Similarly, son John added further strings to his bow, advertising himself in 1877 as an ‘Umbrella and Parasol Maker: Repairs Neatly Executed, All work done on the Premises, No Agents are employed to solicit work. A Good Assortment of Sticks. China and Glass Rivetter.’ Five years later the business was able to add that ‘they have just purchased new machinery for grinding all kinds of cutlery, and will grind every day.’ The largest stock of ladies’ and gent’s walking and umbrella sticks in the town was also promoted.
So throughout his long life Kittow senior, who added ‘sundries man’ to his retail activities in the 1894 Census, was supported by his family: wife Mary, a straw bonnet maker, and their six children. Two of his daughters earned a living as dressmakers. Son John was already listed as a hairdresser at the age of 15 in the 1871 Census and by the time of this photograph would no doubt have been running the business himself. This view also shows how many small shops there were in this town centre street, including Smart’s Family Grocers next door. In later years this was the site of Farrells ironmonger’s shop.
Perhaps Kittow senior stood out from the crowd anyway by becoming Cirencester’s town crier from 1870, succeeded in 1884 by James Hawker, who ‘begs to assure the Public that it will be his earnest endeavour to merit the support so long extended to his predecessor’. Criers were known as bellmen – ringing a bell to gather a crowd together for an occasional announcement, and so becoming briefly the centre of attention.
The town crier was also the town’s bill poster and as a member of the national Bill Posting Agency Kittow rented all the official ‘posting stations’ in the town. He was no doubt firm on fly-posting, with dire warnings to ‘stick no bills’ and that ‘bill posters will be prosecuted’, especially perhaps at times of local or national political elections in the town!
John senior died at the grand old age of 97 in 1916, described by town historian W. Scotford Harmer as ‘Cicester’s then oldest inhabitant’. The site of his shop is these days part of the Farrell Close access off Castle Street.
David & Linda Viner
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