Suttons Stories – Shops, written by Long Sutton Civic Society, has fewer than 20 copies left

A new book charting the history of Long Sutton’s shops has been hailed a huge success – and now less than 20 of the original 250 copies produced remain for sale.

Suttons Stories – Shops, written by Long Sutton Civic Society, was only launched last month and is the first in a new series exploring the history of shopping in the market town.

Civic society trustee Tim Machin said this first volume, which runs to 220 pages and contains around 200 pictures, many in full colour, covers the history of every shop in Market Place and West Street over the past two centuries.

A second volume, which is currently being written, will cover the history of the shops in Market Street, High Street, London Road and Little London while a third book will focus on the shops in Sutton Bridge and surrounding villages.

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Mr Machin said: “The last couple of books we’ve released have had mixed sales, so we wanted to produce a real blockbuster this time, and something which would relate to more people.

“Everybody knows about shops, and everyone has got their own views on local shopping. ‘Long Sutton has a really strong offer of shops – there’s currently only one vacancy in the whole of the town, there are no charity shops, and the only derelict place is the Bull Hotel.

“People have very fond memories about the shops which have been in the town over the years.”

Mr Machin explained that, in order to produce the book, every shop in Long Sutton was photographed and then the history of each carefully traced back as far as possible by members, whose research took them back to the late 1700s / early 1800s.

“One of the things which surprised me, being a relative newcomer to the town, was the breadth of shopping offer that there was locally,’ added Mr Machin.

“You could buy literally anything ranging from frogs’ legs and caviar through to tractors!

“It was like a Harrods department store – but in separate shops! There was Burtons of Nottingham, which was like Fortnum & Mason, ironmongers Fletchers and Christian and Dobbs, which also manufactured implements and employed 100 staff in the shop, yards and a maintenance business.

“Before out of town shopping centres, supermarkets and Amazon, you used to be able to get everything locally.”

Mr Machin said once it has sold out, it is unlikely the book will be reprinted, while the second volume is due to be published later this year.

* Suttons Stories – Shops costs £10 and copies are available from VM Gedney’s Newsagents, Parkway and The Market House, all in Long Sutton, and Phoenix Estate Agents in Sutton Bridge.