Our History

Some buildings carry their history in their walls, and Bailey's Stores is one of them.

Eliza Bailey outside the shop, Newnham on Severn

Standing at the junction of High Street and Station Road for over two centuries, the premises has long been one of Newnham's most recognisable trading landmarks — and remains an enduring part of the village's commercial and community history.

Its recorded history dates back to before 1756, when it traded as a tobacco, alcohol, meat and grocery store. By the 1840s it had reinvented itself as a boot and shoemaker, before a new chapter was about to begin.

With the arrival of the railway in Newnham in 1851, Charles Bailey established himself as a local coal merchant, capitalising on the new trade the railway brought to the town. He went on to found the corner shop as a grocery and provision store in the mid-19th century, and it was Eliza Bailey who carried the family business forward, cementing the Bailey name at the heart of village life for generations to come.

For well over a century, locals have fond memories of calling in — whether for a natter about village life, the daily groceries, or a few sweets on the way to school.

The last descendants of the Bailey family ran the corner shop until Shelley and Mark purchased the property in 2022, sympathetically renovating it to its current glory.

Today, Bailey's Stores has reopened as something a little different — a treasure house of quintessential antiquities, curios and oddities of the past. Each piece has a story. We hope you'll find something that begins its next chapter with you.