Real People. Real Conflict. Real Romance.
Historical Romance
in the style of Jane Austen
Village Shops
A few of the shops one might encounter in a village or market town in the Georgian era
Do you enjoy shopping scenes with our heroes and heroines?
What shops they would have encountered would vary not only place to place but especially city vs town vs village. Obviously, cities would have more shops, especially when it came to fashion and confectioneries. Towns, namely market towns, offered more in the way of food goods. Village shops were limited, sometimes only offering a haberdashery at most, the focus being on providing material for villagers to make their own goods rather than purchase them.
The most common shops:
Butcher
Baker
Fishmonger
Poulterer
Confectioner
Perfumer
Chandler
Bookseller/Stationer
Cordwainer
Saddler
Tobacconist
Cabinet Maker
Draper
Wigmaker
Milliner
Haberdasher
Shoemaker
Bonus Trivia: our storybook heroes and heroines would not have paid for their goods at the time of purchase. Money would not have been carried or exchanged. The charge would have gone onto their account and been billed later, typically sent to whoever paid the bills, be it husband, guardian, steward, or otherwise.
This isn’t a complete list of shops. What others can you think of to add to the list?
Not to be missed is this article from the British Library: https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2021/12/22/shopping-in-the-eighteenth-century/