Three part special: From a super-highway resupply point to part of a grocery empire

The Moushill Stores

Is there much to say about an unassuming corner store that shut its doors decades ago? It wouldn't surprise me if the phrase "location, location, location" was coined just for this spot.

The location of the hamlet of Moushill made it an important point of resupply for anyone using the Portsmouth Road, the main throughfare between London and the ships. This bustling road would have brought goods to and from the ships, as well as being a well-trodden path for sailors returning home from sea.

The store also played an important role as part of the local community it served, which in turn served the Moushill Manor.

By 1871 it was being run by a grocer and baker called James Billinghurst, but big changes were about to happen.

In 1874, a 27-year-old called Charles Burgess arrived in the area. He rapidly built a commercial empire, know as the Burgess Stores, which came to Godalming during the 1870s.

He built a reputation as an innovative retailer, stocking everything from meat and groceries to wines and spirits, installing refrigerated storage and even supplying block ice to customers. His flagship store in Godalming, became one of the first commercial premises in the world to be illuminated by electric light following Godalming's pioneering public electricity supply in 1881.

Though the beautiful, ornate Burgess Stores building, on the corner of Moss Lane, was eventually pulled down for local road widening, archives and exhibits at the nearby Godalming Museum still preserve his original 1894 price lists, packaging and interior photographs.

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The first advert

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Price list

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Burgess Stores, Godalming

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Burgess Stores in the 1960s

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The little shop on the corner of Moushill Lane was about to get the Burgess' treatment, being absorbed into this highly successful grocery chain.

The store featured a distinctive layout with an upper-level storage room accessed via steep wooden stairs rising from the ground-floor kitchen. The building featured exposed overhead ceiling beams fitted with hanging hooks, as well as a functional street-facing delivery hatch, which can still be seen, that opened up directly toward the main road for receiving stock.

In the 1920s, the store was run by grocer and baker William White. Unmarried, he shared the house with his sister Annie, and her husband William Boddy, who used to be the publican at the White Lion located on the opposite side of Moushill Green, demonstrating how tight-knit the community was.

Although Charles Burgess himself became a major civic figure, serving seven terms as Mayor of Godalming and eventually becoming the town's first Honorary Freeman, the Mousehill branch retained an importance all of its own. Long after Burgess's death in 1936, it remained a familiar part of village life.

Between 1921 and 1948, it was managed by Ernest Elmes, a grocer who lived on site with his family. In the 1960s, it was run by Arthur and Bella Blakes who passed it on to the Parsons family.

Although the northern section of the A3 was built in the 1930s, Milford and Moushill weren't released from the suffocating traffic that passed through it until 1992. But this sounded the end for businesses that relied on passing trade.

The store shut and the premises was used by The Surrey Guild of Craftsmen as a co-operative gallery and shop until 2022. It was then taken over by the Young Designers’ Academy, which offers short courses in architecture and design to young people.

The history of the store reflects the changing character of Moushill Lane itself: from a rural hamlet serving agricultural workers to an important resupply point with a settled community and its own shop, public house and thriving social life. Today, Moushill Lane is a quiet, leafy lane. It’s hard to imagine the super-highway of its day being the blood supply to businesses such as the Moushill Stores.

Every period property has a story waiting to be uncovered. If you'd like to discover the fascinating history of your own home, from its former occupants to the events that shaped it, explore our History at Home service or drop us a line.

Want to know more about the hamlet of Moushill?

How a place develops over the centuries tells us so much about the architecture and the people. Here are some more stories about Moushill:

From humble cottages housing servants supporting a manor house, to larger houses that attracted the grandees of industry and artists. This is the story of a road that epitomised social development through the ages.