William Plumtree’s photo of Chequergate
Chequergate, circa 1870
Bellamy's ginger beer bottle
This old photo of Chequergate is by William Plumtree who was taking photos in Louth from about 1865 to 1872. We are grateful to Norman Cawkwell for sharing this photo with us.
The view to St James’ Church seems familiar, but you soon realise that most of the buildings on the left have gone – they must have been demolished before 1928 to make way for the Post Office which fronts onto Little Eastgate.
The three-storey building on the extreme left of the photo is still easily recognisable as 18 Chequergate. In 1868 it was the shop of grocer and draper Peter Watt. Born in Scotland, Peter was apprenticed in Louth to his uncle, a draper, and then he took on the shop here. He did not stay long, but became a travelling salesman and settled in West Yorkshire. Much later in 1898, an interesting announcement tells us that Peter Watt invented a machine for gold miners at Klondike in Canada, which could thaw frosted land by means of flame and hot air. This didn’t seem to be a commercial success. By 1898 the boom of the Klondike Gold Rush had ended, and it would have been so difficult to transport the cumbersome machine weighing 600 kg to the remote gold fields.
The Bellamy family were the next residents of the Chequergate shop. Bellamy is a name familiar to local historians. In 1874, John A B Bellamy moved from here in Chequergate to Grimsby, where he and his sons set up an aerated water and ginger beer business which thrived and expanded, with branches in several towns, including Louth. We can still see Bellamy’s Yard in Upgate.