On the left is the shop which Mr & Mrs Byham took over in 1920.
The shop was unusual to say the least; on one side Mr Byham sold fresh fish and on the other Mrs Byham offered sweets and confectionary. A customer stepping across the threshold might be tempted from either side, the fishy Leonard extolling the virtues of his fresh-caught flounders and smiling and sultry Charlotte offered the darker delights of Fry's chocolate or mint humbugs. But Charlotte had much more to offer than that. The sweets were cover for her main operation: she was mastermind of an illegal gambling joint. Off-course betting was strictly illegal at that time but this only added a picquant edge of danger for Charlotte;
Mrs Byham was the Al Capone of the Coggeshall Grocers.
Mrs Byham ran a slick operation that brought advantages to all but in time, inevitably, someone grassed. Two plain-clothes policeman dressed in 'Dungerees' turned up at the shop and after looking at the sherbert dips for a while, pretending that they wanted to place a bet - only then to throw off their disguise and arrest the punters inside. They were wisked off to Witham police station in a police van. This had been parked a little down the road outside the workshop of wood-carver Bryan Saunders and local gossip soon fingered him as the police snout, an accusation regarded as preposterous by all who knew him. The finger of suspicion remained, refreshed as ever by the street-corner whisperers.
A young lad who worked as delivery boy for a local butcher and collected betting slips when delivering meat, was also caught up in the raid. He said that he could not come into the police van 'because he had his dog with him' only to receive the cruel response,- 'Never mind, bring the dog too'. Poor lad, poor dog. He might not have been the youngest victim. A six-year-old girl regularly took in betting slips for her mother and her mother's friends. She was just about to skip into the shop with the slips in her hand when she was intercepted and told that the constabulary were inside. So sensible girl, she turned about and quickly made her way home. Her father heard of the raid and only too aware of his wife's weakness for a bet, feared she had been caught in the net, rushed home and was furious to discover that his innocent little daughter had been the runner for his wife's betting syndicate.
Another raid took place in November 1937 when the Cesarewich was run at Newmarket, a race for which Charlotte had accepted 311 bets - which gives an idea of the scale of the operation. Only thirteen punters were 'looking at the confectionary counter' when the police burst in but they were rounded up and taken to the Witham nick. Whilst there, word somehow got out that their favourite horse 'Punch' had won! Few could resist a shout of joy and glum faces were transformed into happy ones.
The fines were paid! £2 for the punters and £5 for Charlotte who had convinced the magistrates that she was 'just a poor woman'!
(With thanks to Dodo Rose for the story.)
The admirable Charlotte 'sticky-fingers' Byham died aged 77 in 1970.
Date: Late 1940's?
Ref: 101/56