The Square, Findon. Thomas Winton was a grocer and subpostmaster in Findon. He started his business in about 1873, and in the 1890s was joined by his son George (born in 1881). In about 1906, Thomas and George started publishing real photographic cards of Findon, marked "Winton & Son" on the back. Particularly interesting is a chestnut-sepia toned card, which shows the village square with numerous children posing for the photographer, and the Winton shop in the background.

Thomas Winton was born at New Shoreham late in 1844. His parents were Charles and Mary Winton. Charles had been born at New Shoreham in about 1816 and Mary at Rudgwick in about 1814. Soon after Thomas was born, his parents moved to Warwick Street in Broadwater, near Worthing, where Charles for many years was a grocer and dealer in china and glass. The 1881 census records that he employed one man and a boy. In addition to Thomas, Charles and Mary had four other sons and three daughters.

Thomas married Maria Swan from Worthing in 1866, and settled in Findon, where he became a grocer and general shopkeeper as well as subpostmaster. He and Maria had at least six children, all born at Findon. Several of them briefly helped him run the shop and the post office, but in the end it was his fourth son, George, with whom he forged a long-term business partnership. In 1906 George married Kate Dickinson and in 1908 she bore him a son, Harold George Winton. According to the 1919 Electoral Register George and Kate lived at a house called Braemar in Findon. His brother, another Thomas (born in about 1868), and wife, Louisa Jane Hutchinson, lived at Glenmore in the same village. They had married in 1892.

Thomas Winton was still running the post office and helping with the grocery shop in 1911, but by 1919 his daughter Maria Winton was in charge. She died in Worthing in April 1929, leaving £3133 to her brother, Ernest Winton, a male nurse.

Acknowledgement: Grateful thanks are due to Noreen Lavender for supplying some of the above information.

To directory of publishers

Design: Lucid Design
© www.sussexpostcards.info