Originally, fruit and vegetables were sold from handcarts or market stalls and the legacy of this is the wonderful displays of produce still to be seen at farm shops, on markets, outside city shops and (in towns like Stamford where such shops have disappeared) even in supermarkets.

The term ‘fruiterer’ had its origin in aristocratic medieval households where there was an official in charge of fruit and there is still a Worshipful Company of Fruiterers. In due course the term was used to describe fruit growers, dealers in fruit and related fresh produce from home and abroad. From the beginning of the 20th century, fruiterers in Stamford were advertising fruit from abroad.

The ‘greengrocer’, as the name says, dealt mainly in fresh green vegetables but by the 20th century they tended to sell a rather more extensive range of products often including fruit as well. During the first half of the century, it was common for a greengrocer to grow his own produce so he might also have a market garden - he would work part-time in the shop and his wife and family would run it the rest of the time. It was considered respectable for a woman to work in a greengrocer’s and in Stamford there are examples of widows carrying on the business after their husbands’ deaths. This accounts for some of the longest running businesses.

At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 6 shopkeepers in Stamford calling themselves ‘greengrocer’ and 4 calling themselves ‘fruiterer’. Of these, one greengrocer was also a baker and two of the fruiterers combined fruit with another trade. By the middle of WW I this number had grown to 8 greengrocers and 7 fruiterers. There is no obvious explanation for this growth. Was it due to population growth before the War? Perhaps there may be a clue in that the area around Stamford had orchards and market gardens? During the War, the outlets for their produce would largely have been local.

The number of greengrocers fell to 4 in the 1920s and there were a similar number up until the 1970s. It was surprising, however, to discover that the number of fruiterers increased to an all-time high of 13 in the early 1930s and only fell behind greengrocers in the 1970s. Again, it is hard to find an explanation. Starting in the early 1930s, Meadows, a wholesale fruit storeroom and distribution business, was established on St Mary’s Street continuing until the 1970s and Frank Williams who had a shop on High Street from 1938-1956 was a national wholesale supplier. Did these businesses have an impact on the number of shops? Were there ideological reasons for the popularity of fruit or perhaps a shortage of other sweet products? Perhaps it was just a question of terminology - when does a fruiterer become a greengrocer and vice versa?

Undoubtedly there was always some crossover between the goods sold by greengrocers and fruiterers. One Stamford fruiterer advertised ‘hazel, pears, plums, apples, celery and potatoes’ in 1907, and at a similar time was selling seed potatoes. Jumping to the 1960s, Pauleys, Fruiterer on St Paul’s Street, advertised the sale of fruit and vegetables while Williams, Greengrocer on High Street, advertised ‘Fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables’. It was also common in Stamford to find that fruiterers dealt in other goods - several combined it with floristry, a couple with game dealing and there are examples of combinations with fish, confectionery and dairy produce.

Like other food shops, from the early 1950s the impact of social changes can be seen on the number and location of greengrocers and fruiterers. Long-standing fruiterers’ premises like 22 All Saints Street, 36 High Street and 8 Street Paul’s Street ceased business. At the end of the 1960s Coopers, formerly a greengrocer on Water Street, had become a General Store and other local shops in outlying areas of the town continued to sell some fruit and vegetables much like village shops do today. In the centre of town there was only Williams on High Street, Richardson’s on Red Lion Street and Pauley’s at 46 St Paul’s Street. By the 1980s only the latter survived and by 2000 fresh fruit and vegetables were only available on the Friday market and in supermarkets.

Do today’s teens know the words fruiterer and greengrocer? There is already a regular stall on the High Street and in the post-pandemic world of working from home maybe some greengrocers will return to the town?