This is a photograph of Bridge Street before 1909, looking at what is now the Wilko’s site. Behind the photographer is the river Anton and the road to the right leads to the Town Mill. The main building here was called Bridge House, a splendid private residence, built before 1840, with nothing adjacent to it. About 1870, it became the premises of veterinary surgeon Robert Gates and his family who lived there for about 40 years. Numbering of houses was not common in towns until 1880 when it was ordered that every house had to be numbered for the coming 1881 census. This then became 22 Bridge Street.