In 1900, 60 High Street had been a butcher’s shop for some time and had just been taken over by Richard Henry Brown, a butcher from King’s Cliffe. He and his family lived over the shop and were joined for a while by his nephew who assisted in the shop. In 1910 Brown bought one of the champions at the Christmas Fat Stock Show and the picture shows the shop decked out for Christmas about this time.
In 1911 the family were employing a 14 year old servant, Lilian Grant. She was the daughter of a farmer from Exton and had a 19 year old brother who was a Butcher’s Improver (apprentice working in the trade). Perhaps John Laxton Grant joined his sister in employment with R H Brown before taking on the shop himself?
Brown had a nasty accident in September 1911 when a cow fell in front of his pony trap on Tinwell Road and this might have been a good time to take on a young man looking to advance.