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139 Bath Road (formerly Everton House)
At the start of the 19th century causes of disease were little understood and many proprietary ‘cures’ were ineffective or harmful. But by the late 1850s many scientific advances and new legislation had standardised drugs, greatly improving their safety and effectiveness.
In 1857 there was a pharmacist here at Everton House called Edward Pearce Spier, who was a 'chemist, druggist and licensed tea dealer'. He appears to have been bankrupt in 1865 and was replaced by a chemist called Mr Francis J. Brown, who advertised bottles of medicine at low prices. The next chemist to practice here was Mr. William Dolman, originally from Cheshire, who qualified as a chemist in 1873. Interestingly, in his advertisements he claimed that the business dated from 1842, so we may find that there was a pharmacy here for almost 180 years. This would represent remarkable continuity of a single trade, reaching back to the earliest days of the 'New Bath Road', at the start of the Victorian era. William Dolman and his Cornish wife Sarah lived here together with their three children, William, Thomas Tustin and baby daughter, Ethel. The children were all born in Cheltenham.
Ethel was only seven years old when her father William died, on the 24th March 1888, aged just 37. He left his wife Sarah well-provided for, with a house in Brandon Terrace in Gratton Road and a prosperous business and home here at Everton House. The house in Brandon Terrace was for Sarah to ‘have the use or enjoyment or receive the rent and profit for her natural life’. As Sarah was financially comfortable she was able to employ domestic servants to help her bring up her still fairly-young family. She died on 29th November 1921.
In William’s will he asked for a competent manager to take over the business until a suitable buyer could be found, assuming the business would have to be sold. That person was Arthur J. Wells who, although only a young man of 22, was described in the 1891 census as a 'chemist’s manager' and he lived here with the Dolman family.
 Thomas Tustin Dolman (photo courtesy of Richard Dolman)
When he was old enough Thomas decided to follow his father’s occupation and for several years this shop became Dolman & Son, Dispensing and Family Chemists. His brother, William, became a clergyman and in 1901 he conducted the marriage of Thomas to a cousin called Ethel. The couple lived in a house named 'Totnes' in Old Bath Road. Thomas Dolman was highly regarded and became secretary of the Cheltenham Chemists' Association but sadly died on 24th March 1919, after which the family involvement with the shop came to an end.
By 1922 the business had been acquired by Mr Thomas Wickham, although he leased the property until 1926, when he bought it for £550. Thomas Beale Collings Wickham was born in about 1882 in Somerset and entered the pharmacy profession at the age of 15. By the time he was 32 had moved to Cheltenham, with a business in the Lower High Street, which he later sold to Boots the chemist. Mr Wickham went on to own a small chain of chemist shops in Cheltenham, including the other Rowlands pharmacy in Bath Road, near to the Norwood Arms.
Despite the change of ownership, this shop continued in the name of Dolman until 1960. Welshman Mr Owen was one of the best known chemists here, for many years. Amongst the pill-making devices and powder funnels was a piece of equipment used for the dentistry side of the business. At the end of the 20th century several people could still recall having teeth pulled in the back room – not a pleasant thought!
During the 1960s Mr H C Robinson was the chemist here. A keen cricketer, he played for Gloucestershire Gypsies at one time. In 1974 Mr I G Pratt ran the business and was here until his retirement in August 1997. The shop was then taken over by the company that owned the Leckhampton Pharmacy and in November 1997 the name was changed to the College Pharmacy, named after nearby Cheltenham College. In the late 19th and early 20th century there had been another, different, College Pharmacy owned by the Thomas Brothers, near the corner of St Luke’s Road and Bath Road.
Formerly Numark, this then became home to one of the two Rowlands Pharmacies in Bath Road. As their website says 'Rowlands Pharmacy was founded in 1810 as a small family business. The company gradually grew into a chain of numerous small, community-based pharmacies in the United Kingdom, and is now one of the oldest of its kind in the country.' 
This branch of Rowlands was sadly finally closed on 10th August 2021, bringing to an end about 180 years of unbroken pharmacy trade from this shop, which harked back to the earliest years of the Bath Road as a shopping district.
Researcher: Marilyn West
Additional Material: Stuart Manton (August 2021) See also the local memories page for this property
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