Millennium Project
Rob Forsyth
Researching the history of the 'Tuckers' building was occasioned by Andrew Jacob posting an image (l) of a 'With Compliments' card belonging to Mr & Mrs Mrs RS Tucker dated February 18th 1897 on Facebook's 'Growing up in Deddington'.
Kempsters Ale House
According to Mary Vane Turner's 'The Story of Deddington' there was a tavern on the site before it became a Grocery Store. The Deddington Map Group research 'Where are they now?' established that it was called 'Kempsters Ale House'. Unfortunately no dates or source for this were recorded.
John Dean - Grocer
The first recorded proprietor of the premises as a store would seem to be a wedding announcement in The Oxford Chronicle on 26 July 1851 of 'Mr John Dean, grocer, Deddington' marrying Miss Jane Gilkes together with a very early photograph in the archives of his shop with his name on the front. The date is attributed to late 1850s.
More about John Dean (1828-1878) - who was the younger brother of Henry Dean of Earls Farm - and the farthing value tokens he issued to customers inscribed 'Grocer & Tea Dealer' - can be found in a Timeline article compiled by descendant Tommy Bull.
Tuckers Grocery Stores
Sometime after the 1861
census and before Cassey’s 1868 Directory a new proprietor, Elisha Tucker, who hailed from Frome, Somerset, took over the store. He carried on the business as a Tea Dealer & Grocer (l) employing two men and a boy claiming the store was ‘Established in 1805.' This implies that the premises had a long history as such predating even John Dean.
Elisha had a 5 year old son, Robert F Tucker, who, according to Kelly's 1911 Directory, was the village postmaster and a grocer. The Post Office was located on New Street in what is now the Old Post House. Elisha was still listed as a grocer so they were running the shop together.
Bernard Bowerman recalled Robert running the store in the 1920s & 1930s in his 'Memories of Deddington'. The Post Office had relocated by then from the Post House on New Street to Tuckers in the Market Place.
Kellys 1939 Directory lists a change of ownership with Mr VR Boone (1912-1962) as its proprietor. Not much is known about him but Sid Berry in a 2005 aural recording 'Memories of Deddington' says "they [British Legion] had a bloke named Lardy Vincent, he got a grocer’s shop at Bloxham, near the War Memorial and he got Tuckers when Tuckers was in the Market Place and he had that as well and he was the bloke that looked after all the money for the Legion and he was as straight as a dye. He kept it all up together, ‘e did. Yes, he was Lardy." Presumably he was know as Lardy because of his trade.
He passed the shop to his son Raymond who subsequently sold it post WWII [date?] to Mr Ted Moseley.
According to Joanna Levan, Mr Moseley sold it to her father Mervyn Wynne and mother Marjorie (Nicky) in the late 1950s. They had a wood carved bas-relief plaque made of the house (now Quince & Clover) and the shop (now Otters). Joanna presented the plaque (l) to the parish in June 2015 and it now hangs in the Parish Archive office. She recalled the shop and the circumstances of the plaques creation in the Deddington News
The Moseleys sold the shop in 1972 to John Cannell who Ruth Johnson in an article in the October 2003 Deddington News says was 'fondly known as The Colonel'.* Son Peter and his wife Sylvia ran it as a general village store specialising in food; known locally as 'Harrods of North Oxfordshire'. The nickname was allegedlly because Tuckers sold more varieties of cheese than Harrods Food hall in London!
*The photograph above is extracted from Ruth Johnson's article. Below it she asks "Which year is this and what is the occasion?" and carries on briefly to summarise ownership from Robert Tucker onwards and to describe the shop as it was when she first arrived in Deddington in 1958 in Ted Moseley's time
In 1988 the shop closed as was reported on 26 May in The Banbury Guardian article 'The end of a shopping era is mourned'.
Tuckers Country Store
Barrie and Annabel Gregory were the new prorietors. They changed its use to selling antiques and bric-a-brac.
In 1998 the Gregorys departed for a life in the west country and sold the premises
The following information has been derived from advertisements and press cuttings supplied by John Plumbe together with information from the Deddington News. Exact dates are missing for start/end of its various incarnations as a restaurant. If any browser of this website is able to provide more information - or any any part of this article - please contact me.
Dexters
1998 James Dexter Harrison (aka Jamie Dexter), who had been running a small restaurant on the SW corner of the Market Place (in 2026 an estate agents), had moved across the square to the larger premises.
Bowlers
2002 Martin Ellis, publican at The Red Lion, purchased the property.
29 May 2003 This advertisement (l) shows that Simon MacDonald was the chef/manager. After Bowler closed he became chef at The Unicorn
The menu looked very appetising
A September 2003 article in the Deddington News by Frank Steiner indicates that it had closed.
But it was to re-open under a change of name....
The Olive
21 January 2004 The Olive appeared in the minutes of a Parish Council meeting. The lights outside the building were the subject of some discussion. Perhaps this marked the re-opening of the restaurant under its new name
On 23 May it advertised a Festival of Local Produce (l) under the management of Lucy Garnier. But by November it was up for sale.
Otters
The date that Michael Whitley purchased it is not known but he was advertising the restaurant in the Deddington News by February 2006 .
13 February 2007 he is recruiting staff. He himself was its excellent chef serving simple menus of high class food.
In 2021 the restaurant had to close because of the covid epidemic and sadly has remained closed since.
Gallery
Mutiple images relating to the buildings various uses as stores, shops and restaurants can be found in
The Tuckers Stores Building album