Hagley Historical and Field Society

Charles Richard Sheppard was born in Hagley 1881; his parents were Thomas, a labourer, and Susan Sheppard. “Dick” Sheppard married Mary Jane Smith in 1903, and they had sons Charles William Sheppard in 1904 and Walter Henry Sheppard in 1909.

Dick, aged 30 in the 1911 census, was a cowman, working for Viscount Cobham and living in Hall Lane. His residence and job were the same in the 1921 census.

He had moved to Stourbridge Road between 1926 and 1930 and become a shopkeeper; the 1932 and 1940 Kelly’s Directories list him as Sheppard, Chas., shopkeeper. His shop is next to the telephone pole in the photograph below. The Spencer’s Arms public house is the second building to the right of the shop in this view.

 

In 1939 he was still a shopkeeper and living at 67 Stourbridge Road, next to the Prince of Wales public house, but his shop was always next but one to the Spencer’s Arms Inn on Birmingham Road. This location was next to the cattle market which was good for the trade in his shop. It has been said that, along with other goods e.g. cheese and potatoes, he sold fresh rabbits which he had caught.
Rosemary Miller, in 1999, described her memory of Dick’s shop as follows:
“All the old farmers would go here to smoke their pipes. He was stone deaf. Used to sell lamp oil and sweets. I was supposed to always buy wrapped sweets because his hands were so dirty. He was there when a lorry lost control going down Birmingham Road and demolished the shop.”

 

The shop was demolished in 1946 by a lorry that had brake failure when descending Hagley Hill. The cab of the lorry went right into the shop; its flatbed platform and rear wheels can be seen under the tarpaulin. Two vehicles parked outside the shop were also extensively damaged. Dick was 65 at this time and the shop was never rebuilt; thus, his shopkeeping days had finished. He died in 1957, aged 76.