1836
Thomas Doy - Southwold's first lamp lighter. He is also a chimney sweep (C1841)

Note: James Maggs records that the town was first lit by lamps in October 1836. It would be 12 years before the town would be lit by gas. Street lights at this time were oil-fired. Thomas was paid £30 pa and it was part of his contract to purchase the oil out of this sum and keep the lamps filled. A 6p in the pound lighting rate was levied on the population.(M).

1851
Thomas Doy - Chimney Sweep (C)

1861
William Doy - Thomas Doy's son, appears to have taken over the chimney sweep business whilst Thomas branches out as a coal merchant.(C) William is married to Harriet (nee Tink) and their son, Walter Christmas, born on Christmas day 1856, is 4 years old.

1871
William Doy - William seems to have given up the Chimney Sweep business and is now recorded as a Carter. (C). His son, Walter Christmas takes up an apprenticeship with the G E Child foundry in the Market Place and, in 1877, at the age of 21, is working as a track layer on the new Southwold-Halesworth railway line. While helping to construct the railway bridge over the River Blyth, Walter Christmas is badly injured and spent nearly a year in Beccles Hospital. (Source: obituary)

1881
William Doy - Now describes himself in the Census as a 'Farmer and Carter'. (The reference to farming may indicate the start of the family's dairy business) William and Harriet are both now 52 and have five children living at home.

Note: Their home may not have been here in Lorne Road at this time, but round the corner at the junction of Park Lane and what is now called Gardner Road. The Census gives it as ' Common Home'. William's property portfolio was fairly extensive. At his death on 7 November 1892, He owned at least two more freehold cottages close by and had the lease on California Cottage on Ferry Road.

Walter Christmas Doy, now aged 24, is married to Louisa (nee Welsh). They live very close, at one of William's properties, No 8 Mill Lane, and Walter has a job as a platelayer, maintaining the track on the Southwold-Halesworth railway line. (C)

1896
Walter Christmas Doy - Goods and parcel agent for Southwold Railway. Also dairy owner. (K1896). Walter and Louisa have moved back into the family home and Walter is now running the business. The dairy side of the operation is run from a shop at the side of the building. The cows are grazed on the adjacent Common.

Note: Apart from No 15 (now called Lorne Cottage) and 15a (now called Ivy Cottage, but then also encompassing what is now 15b), Walter Christmas owned much of the property at the Gardner Road end of Lorne Road and Mill Lane, including Nos 4, 6, 8 and 10 Mill Lane and Nos 11, 13, 17 and 19 Lorne Road.

1924
Walter Doy & Son - Coal Yard and Merchant (K1924).By this time the dairy business seems to have been closed. Walter Christmas Doy is now 67 and the business is run by his eldest son, Walter James Doy (43).

The Southwold - Halesworth Railway closes in 1929 which threatens the demise of the cartage side of the Doy business. However, Walter Christmas and Walter James manage to land a contract with London North East Railway to run the carting service from Halesworth Station. They invested in two Dodge lorries for the purpose. The venture is short-lived. Just a year or two later, the railway company purchases its own fleet of lorries and the Doy contract is cancelled. The Doy firm faces insolvency.

c 1931-32
Walter Doy & Son. - Walter James Doy, now in his 50s, decides, in the midst of the 1930s trade depression, that it is time to diversify! Although the company has been involved in coal transport and storage for some years, the plan is now to become an active coal merchant under the control of 22-year-old Spencer Frederick Doy (currently working as a carpenter with R J Allen at No 24 High Street). Spencer's father, Walter James Doy, while running the business as a whole, also takes over the John Baldry Corn Merchant business at No 33 High Street which now becomes the company's registered address.

Note: Spencer Frederick's daughter, Pat Peak, has contributed the following extract from a piece written by her father: "I was out of work and my father wanted to start a corn and coal business. He asked me if I would do the coal part of it, to which I said I would. The first time I went round with a three ton load of coal, I sold two hundredweight. But I gradually built up a business running two lorries with two and sometimes three men."

1934
Walter Christmas Doy dies on 22 March this year aged 77, leaving the business to Walter James. The working buildings and all the residential addresses in Mill Lane and Lorne Road pass to his widow, Louisa, for her lifetime. After Louisa's death, their son, Walter James, acquires all the properties.

1949
Walter James Doy dies this year, leaving the outbuildings and the business to his son, Spencer Frederick Doy.

Part of the site, the stable loft, is sublet to 'Nobby' Hutton and Dick Bird trading as 'Triard Carpenters & Builders'.

Note: Pat Peak (nee Doy) writes: "The outbuildings were not only where my father [Spencer Frederick] ran his business, but also our playground as children. We loved to play in the stables, in particular where the family had originally kept the horses and cows. Above the stables was the loft which housed 'Triard' builders owned by 'Nobby' Hutton and Dick Bird. We used to love visiting them as this was their carpentry workshop."

1956
Spencer Frederick Doy - Changes the registered address of the business to that of his family home, No 19 Lorne Road although the business continues to run from the outbuildings of No 15.

1971
The Doy business is sold to the national coal company, Charringtons.

1972
The premises, including No 15 and its outbuildings, are sold to Graham Denny, trading as 'William Denny & Son', builders.

Now redeveloped as residential units known as Hollyhock Square

We are grateful for the input of Pat Peak and Pauline Bennett, daughters of Spencer Frederick Doy in helping us assemble this history. Also to Derek Self for identifying the photo of Edward Albert Self, his great-grandfather