This building was used, for a very long time, as a chemist shop. The strange model above the shop front is actually an apothecary’s still and was a trade sign. Chemists can be found here from 1836. Notable chemists include Octavious Corder (chemist from 1888-1904, and Joseph Dester. Dester was advertising as a chemist in the Market place from 1907 until 1916. In addition to selling medicines and toiletries, he was also selling veterinary products. He had dark rooms for amateur photographers and photographic materials for sale. He was a keen photographer and the town archive has 2 wooden boxes containing 100 glass plates all taken by Dester around the turn of the century.

In the 1960s the Chemist was G R Okes, until in 1969 Rees Coghlan purchased the property. It had a small area in the front left-hand corner of the building as a shop with a big hallway to the kitchen and dispensary behind. 

Everything was dark wood, with apothecary drawers with gold lettering. Mr Coghlan gutted the building and carried out extensive renovation to create a much larger and modern shop. Coghlan was a dispensing chemist in a time when very few drugs came in foil packets and tablets would be counted out into glass bottles. There was often a queue of people waiting with various ailments from athlete’s foot to common colds. Treatments would be mixed from scratch to sort out the problem! Many of these would perhaps not be permitted today! One such treatment was inherited from Collins Chemist- Bronchial Elixir.