THIS intriguing glimpse into our Edwardian past shows shopkeepers Stephen Head — the bearded chap in the peaked cap — standing outside his fruit and vegetable shop at 98 High Street, Southampton, with his youngest daughter Ethel by his side.

During the late 1980s excavations were carried out around the lower end of the street where this photograph would have been taken. The excavations revealed that this building could originally have formed part of a large medieval mansion.

The S.G.H. above the bay window represents the initials of Stephen Head and the date, 1878, presumably refers to the year he bought the house.

According to those who were once familiar with the house, there were vaults beneath the property, and there was a secret passage that was said to lead down to the Royal Pier area.

Number 98 was on the corner of Broad Street which, like the house, was blitzed in 1940 and sadly only exists in archives photos such as these and in the memories of a handful of Sotonians who remember the city the way it used to be.

This particular photo, which was dated as 1909, shows theatre posters on the side of the building that display dates for August of that year, while the date 1920 appears in bold across one poster, which was advertising a local theatre production of a play about the future called England in Danger!

The man and boy next to the horse and cart was believed to possibly be Stephen’s son Bert and his son Bertie.