HALF-A-CROWN CAPITAL STARTED FLOURISHING KINGSBRIDGE BUSINESS

One of the features of Fore Street, Kingsbridge, for nearly as long as anyone can remember has been the china the furnishing shop of J.H. Donovan and Son Ltd. The exact date of the opening has not been recorded, but it is known to have been in 1873 that the original John Donovan first started trading as a china shop at the top of Church Street, opposite Dodbrook Church. This property has long been pulled down and cottages built over it. But the story really starts in Skibberine, County Cork, Southern Ireland, where Mr Donovan's great grandparents were farmers. They paid their rent to a dishonest agent who absconded to America with the money, and being unable to prove that they had paid, were forced to leave their farm.

AN EYE FOR THE PENNIES
They decided to emigrate to England, going first to London, where the original John Donovan was born in 1853, the youngest of a family of 12, and then moving to Plymouth. John was obviously a boy with a flair for business, for there are two stories about him when he was very young. Feeling the need for some money, he borrowed half-a-crown from his mother, bought some flower pots, sold them at a profit, and returned the half-a-crown. On another occasion his grand daughter, Mrs Jinks, recalls, when there was a big parade on the Hoe, his mother returned home to find that all her chairs had disappeared. Young John had taken them to a front row position and was charging people to sit and watch the parade.

FOUND HIS BRIDE HERE
In 1871 he must have known Kingsbridge well, for in that year he married a Miss Stone of Prawle. It is not known exactly when he moved to Kingsbridge, but the first china shop was established by 1873, and his eldest son, John Henry Donovan, was born there in 1874. His grandchildren remember him as a man who was a stickler for time, an autocrat and yet possessing great resource. On one occasion he missed the coach to Plymouth, so he ran after it as hard as he could, catching it up at Aveton Gifford. On another he could not get his donkey to go through the stream at Combe, near Malborough, so turned it around and backed it over the water until the no doubt startled donkey found it had lost. He went on a buying trip to the potteries at Bovey Tracey, which supplied much of his stock, and must have been carried away for on arriving at the toll gate on the way back he found he had no money left, so had to sell some jugs to the toll-keeper to be allowed through.

LARGE FAMILY
He had 11 children, although only five lived to maturity. His son John Henry joined him straight from school, when they moved to 25 Church Street. The firm moved to their present premises in Fore Street in 1893. The rent was then £37/5/0 per annum, which was increased to £42/5/0 in 1897. Before they moved it was the general post office kept by Mrs Elizabeth Borie Blackler. In 1900 they bought the property together with Myrtle House from Mr Miller. This had been St Edmund's School and the many initials carved in the soft local stone of the five arches in the courtyard probably date from this time. The rental before the Donovan's bought it had been £17 a year. With the larger premises they were able to branch out into the furniture business and took the form we know today. In an advertisement in the Kingsbridge Gazette of July 1896 they were called the ' Pottery and Furnishing Warehouse,' "offering a stock which is one of the choicest and equal to any in the West of England at the lowest possible prices to suit all classes". In September 1897 they had changed their name to ' The China and Furnishing Warehouse, Kingsbridge,' china presumably being more fashionable than pottery. The advertisement was addressed to "Gentlemen, Gardeners and the Trade" and continued: "John Donovan begs to announce that he has received a large consignment of POTTERY ex ship Brilliant from the well known Fareham Potteries, consisting of Flower Pots, Covered bread and Salting Pans, Ham and Seed Pans, and Bowls of every description.

WAR SERVICE
John Henry's son, John Weymouth, joined him in 1928 and continued until he volunteered for the Royal Air Force in 1939. Serving with the Balloon Barrage, he went through the worst of the Plymouth blitzes. The business was carried on by his father and his sister, Mrs Jinks, who remembers she would much rather have been in the WRNS. In 1945 Mr Donovan returned and was joined by his son, John Nicholas, in September 1971. In 1959 the shop was greatly enlarged, although the original turned wooden fittings made in 1900 were preserved and still enhance the shop. Mr Donovan says : Now my son is coming along with lots of new ideas - and it is quite right. After all, I wanted changes when I was young.

We started with CHINA AND GLASS
and over the past 100 years have added
CARPETS AND VINYLS
BEDS AND BEDDING
SOFAS AND CHAIRS
BLINDS - ROLLER, VENETIAN, VERTICAL, PLEATED, ROMAN
CURTAINS AND NET CURTAINS
TABLEMATS AND TRAYS
KITCHENWARE
GIFTWARE
FURNITURE
We are now able to furnish your complete home