SPURGEON
The Shambles
John SPURGEON (1860 - 1936) was a well known butcher in Trunch in the early years of the 20th. Century. He lived in The Shambles on the Hill and had a slaughter house next to his home. Arthur Amis remembered him fondly, saying that he often gave the boys bullocks' bladders to use as footballs, and he recalled him using a pony and trap to deliver meat to nearby villages. He was also a church warden, the parish constable, a good bowls player and captain of the village cricket team.
John was married to Catherine Fuller and after he died she carried on as the butcher with help from her son Ralph. Their other son Arthur Cullum was killed in France in World War One aged only 23. For most (if not all) of the time that John was the butcher the Shambles were mortgaged and his family history has illuminated some of the mysteries in the deeds of the Shambles.
Arthur Callum Spurgeon 1895-1918
|
 Spurgeon and Fuller wedding 1904
Back row - 3rd left John, 4th Kitty, 5th Marion
Children in front row - Cissie, Arthur, Bessie |
Aldborough in Norfolk
John was born in Aldborough and his father Thomas Callum was a painter, plumber and glazier. The Callum name came from Thomas' mother. John had an older brother William who also became a butcher in Aldborough and he held the mortgage of the Shambles when John lived there, transferring it to his married daughter Edith Dunham after his death.
This letter to the Rev Michael Westney in Trunch Rectory from John. S. Ellis was in the 1978 village scrapbook.
Dear Mr. Westney,
On the 28th. February, when you conducted the funeral service in Trunch Church for my cousin Cissie Spurgeon, you spoke of the many changes that have taken place in the village during the
82 years of her life. You recalled the long association of certain families with Trunch and your
remarks have prompted me to recall the family butcher’s shop and slaughter house started by her
father John Spurgeon around 100 years ago. As a boy I spent happy holidays in Trunch and
remember my uncle and cousin Ralph killing bullocks, sheep etc by the old poleaxe method and
the modern humane killer: my word how the pigs would squeal. Then I would enjoy riding in
their pony cart distributing meat to many surrounding villages as well as to local families.
My dear mother was born in Trunch in 1879 - almost a century ago - and was the youngest
daughter in the large family brought up in the village by Josiah and Harriett Fuller who were born
I believe at Trunch. After marrying my father in Trunch church in 1904, my parents lived in
Southwark, London, where my father had a Cornchandlers business. My mother often spoke of
her happy childhood days, when she sang in the choir, played the organ and had many friends
with other old Trunch families such as the Spurgeons, May, Flaxman, Rev Kimm and others.
Dear Mr. Westney,
On the 28th. February, when you conducted the funeral service in Trunch Church for my cousin Cissie Spurgeon, you spoke of the many changes that have taken place in the village during the
82 years of her life. You recalled the long association of certain families with Trunch and your
remarks have prompted me to recall the family butcher’s shop and slaughter house started by her
father John Spurgeon around 100 years ago. As a boy I spent happy holidays in Trunch and
remember my uncle and cousin Ralph killing bullocks, sheep etc by the old poleaxe method and
the modern humane killer: my word how the pigs would squeal. Then I would enjoy riding in
their pony cart distributing meat to many surrounding villages as well as to local families.
My dear mother was born in Trunch in 1879 - almost a century ago - and was the youngest
daughter in the large family brought up in the village by Josiah and Harriett Fuller who were born
I believe at Trunch. After marrying my father in Trunch church in 1904, my parents lived in
Southwark, London, where my father had a Cornchandlers business. My mother often spoke of
her happy childhood days, when she sang in the choir, played the organ and had many friends
with other old Trunch families such as the Spurgeons, May, Flaxman, Rev Kimm and others.
There were Spurgeons in Trunch earlier than the butchering family but they do not seem to be connected. In the late 1600s George and Mary SPURGEON had 2 sons - Robert and Henry in Trunch and a Mary from Trunch was married in 1727 in Gimingham, while a newspaper reports a William Manby Spurgeon living in Trunch in 1784.
