Number 3 South Street was a bookshop, stationer and newsagent continuously for about 170 years until it closed in July 2017.

Richard Corner was running his printing and bookshop business there from the 1840s. The WWN, which he founded in 1860, was printed there for many years.

The business was then run by L Tozer & Co, who from around the turn of the century published and printed the annual Wellington Directory. These directories were the precursor to what is now the Town Guide.

By 1938 the business had become Teare’s, a name it retained through several changes of proprietor. One interesting sidelight is that in 1938 the shop’s telephone number was Wellington 2.

Eighty years later technology had changed and exchange names had been replaced by codes but the 2 was still there. Teare’s phone number was 01823 662002.

COLIN SPACKMAN

Wellington Local History & Museum Society has an on-going project to create a directory of the businesses which have occupied shops and other premises in the town over the last 120 years or more.

If you can add to the information given then please let the society know via [email protected], or drop a note into the Museum in The Squirrel, 28 Fore Street.