51 High Street
Latimer’s shop front included brooms, buckets, mugs, bowls and baskets. Inside were china, glassware, tools, clocks and a wide range of other items.
Latimer’s did not advertise often. Below is a rare advert in the local paper.
The business was run by Giles (1879-1967) who took over from his father David (1840-1908). David, like others in his family, was a watchmaker, but then chose a different career.
Giles’s eldest brother James emigrated to the USA in 1898 where he was a butcher in Fall River, Massachusetts. James owned the shop at 51 High Street, Langholm, with Giles as his tenant. Giles’s other brother Luther had an ironmongery and china business in nearby Lockerbie. His sister Sara had a milliner’s shop in David Street, Langholm.
Giles owned 49 High Street next door, which was rented to Fred Duckitt, ‘cooked fish and potato purveyor’, i.e. a fish and chip shop.
Giles’s wife Sarah nee Wilson (1877-1915) died on 12th December, aged 38, two weeks after the birth of their second child. Giles died in Langholm in 1937.
The Latimer business passed down through the family, continuing its presence in the High Street.