No.18-20 High Street

Shop History

Notes

• National Westminster Bank

• The National Westminster Bank, now commonly known as NatWest, was incorporated on 18th March 1968. When it came to Newmarket and built its branch here is not known - if you can help fill in this date please E-MAIL
  
  

• Hugo Edwin Otho Waugh

• Hugo Edwin Otho Waugh was born in 1872 in Naklo Slaskie, Silesia, Preußen [Prussia - now Poland]. His parents were James Waugh and Isabella (neé Scott). To understand Hugo you have to look into his family origins, which explains why he came to be here in Newmarket, having been born in Poland.
  
  
• His father James Waugh was a successful racehorse trainer, born at Jedburgh, Roxburghshire (Scotland). James seems to have followed in the heels of another successful trainer; Mathew Dawson, succeeding him initially at Gullane in Scotland, then at Russley Park, near Lambourn in Berkshire and then finally at the close of the 1870 season he left Russley for Kentford, Newmarket.
  
  Mat was the godfather of James' son Matthew Dawson Waugh.
  
  

  Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle. Saturday 26 November 1870 TURF NEWS FROM NEWMARKET Matthew Dawson has let his house and stable, situated at Kentford, near Newmarket, to James Waugh, who, we hear, will commence business as public trainer.

  
  [It's not known where this actually was in Kentford as it's known that when Matthew Dawson came to Newmarket in 1866 that he took up residence at Heath House on the Bury Road.]
  
  Soon after coming to Kentford he moved on to Naklo, on the Polish border, to train for the entrepreneur Count Hugo Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck. After two years at Naklo he followed the Count to Karlburg in Hungary, where he trained winners of every big race in Austria-Hungary. His horses also won many important prizes in Germany.
  
  The Count had purchased the Castle Karlburg, Oroszvár from the Zichy family in 1872 and it subsequently became a nationally-known racehorse stud farm, until he sold it in 1890. The Count's contribution to racing is remembered in the Austro-German classic races the Graf-Hugo-Henckel-Memorial and the Henckel-Rennen, more recently renamed the Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen - the German equivalent of the 2,000 Guineas.
  
  James had returned to the UK prior to this though, and came back to Newmarket in 1880, where he first stayed at Middleton Cottage, No.2 Exeter Road, before finally settling at Meynell House, Snailwell Road for the rest of his life. He died at Newmarket, after some years of failing health, on 23rd October 1905 and is buried in the cemetery here.
  
  

  James Waugh - Meynell House, Snailwell Road - July 1899

  
  
• Due to his almost constant travelling, James’ children were born at a variety of locations:-

  • Richard Waugh b. 21st January 1855 at Jedburgh, Roxburghshire
  • Janet Waugh b. 7th September 1856 at Jedburgh, Roxburghshire
    (she married racehorse trainer Joseph Butters - parents of Frank Joseph Arthur Butters, another well-known trainer)
  • Grace Hamilton Horsburgh Waugh b. 10th August 1858 at Gullane, Scotland
  • William ‘Willie’ Charles Scott Waugh b. 22nd November 1860 at Gullane, Scotland
  • Alexander ‘Alex’ Adam Waugh b. 10th August 1862 at Gullane, Scotland
  • Isabella Ellen Waugh b. 25th April 1864 at East Ilsley, Berkshire
  • James Richard Waugh b. March 1866 at Telscombe, Sussex (d. 4th May 1929 in South Africa)
  • Charles ‘Charlie’ Robert William Robinson Waugh b. 1870 at Russley Park, Berkshire
  • Hugo Edwin Otho Waugh b. 1872 at Naklo Slaskie, Silesia, Preußen
  • Matthew Dawson Waugh b. 1873 at Naklo Slaskie, Silesia, Preußen
  • Robert Thomas ‘Tom’ Waugh b. 1874 at Karlburg, Oroszvár, Hungary




Waugh Family Back Row: Alex - Charlie - Richard - Isabel (daughter) - Willie - Hugo Front Row: Tom - Janet - James - Grace - Dawson



• Sadly, shortly after the family’s return to the UK from Hungary, Isabella died on 5th July 1881 at Middleton Cottage, leaving James to support his copious family alone.
  
  
• On the 1891 census Hugo was at No.3 Cornhill Ipswich, working as a Grocer’s Assistant, a trade which he subsequently brought back to Newmarket, where he married Edith Jessie Simpson, daughter of George Simpson the master printer and originator of the Newmarket Journal - see the page for No.84-88 High Street for more details about her family.
  
  Their marriage was in early 1901 and on the census for that year Hugo and his young bride can be seen here in the High Street working as a Grocer.
  
  They had two children - Hugo James Thomas Waugh b. 11th April 1902, who later worked at Barclay’s Bank and died at Hemingford Grey on 28th May 1977 and Douglas Waugh b. 8th August 1905, who became a bank clerk (it’s believed his bank branch was at Stowmarket) and he died at Gipping near Stowmarket in December 1974.
  
  Hugo senior died on 28th January 1933 and didn’t get to see his son Douglas’ marriage to Beryl Rolfe on 26th April 1933 at St Martin's, Lincoln.
  
  
  
  
• Waugh’s Grocers was still listed here on the Newmarket UDC re-numbering map of 12th June 1953, but at some time Edith had moved to No.33 (Edith Villas) Rous Road and died on 6th February 1966 at St Mary’s Hospital, Mill Road, Bury St Edmunds [the old hospital in Bury St Edmunds - the site was sold for development in 1988] leaving her possessions to her son Douglas, who was listed as a retired bank clerk on the probate.
  
  
  
  

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• Many thanks to 'Old Newmarket' for the photos 'The Clock Tower c. 1920s', 'The Clock Tower c. 1910'
  & 'Clock Tower end of High Street c. 1890s'.