These pages attempt to record the history of occupation of the local shops and businesses in the older and more central parts of Faringdon.
Some information on shops and businesses in the rest of the town may be found on the more general Faringdon Streets pages.
Also an excellent document compiled by this society in 2005 and well worth reading is: 
Faringdon History Walk.
The Faringdon Community Website has also done a similar project [Faringdon’s shops and businesses] and [Faringdon history through photos].
Lists of shops and businesses from newspapers adverts and other media:
Shop Adverts from Newspapers 1972-3
Shop Adverts from FDS Programmes 1949-89
Directory & Gazetteer of Oxon, Berks & Bucks (Dutton, Allen & Co.) 1863 – Faringdon section
The contents of these documents have also all been listed on the individual street pages, or below if the street is currently unknown.
Advertisements in Local Media
The following shops and businesses were advertised in the years stated but without any address and have not yet been located:
ABBA DOUBLE GLAZING CO LTD., FDS 1978
COUNTY FIRE OFFICE, agent Alan G. Haines, FA 1897, 1916, 1918, 1931 (agent Bernard Haines)
FARINGDON CARRIAGE WORKS, James Collins & Co, FA 1897.
HAWES R. & H. Bedding, carpets, linoleum. FV 1972.
HOLLY W.T., bootmaking & repairing called ‘Just a Word’ opening in Coxwell St, FA 1916 (near Ballard & Sons)
JONVANS. Self drive vans & caravans, FV 1973.
JUDD R. DAY, pianos, FA 1891
LANE C, cycles, ironmongers, FA 1894
LONG R. F. Heating engineers, FV 1973.
PULLEN A.H., The Stables, Hillside, Faringdon, teaching riding, driving etc, FA 1902, 1903 (PULLEN & LIDDIARD horse dealers & trainers)
WALSH & CO., Faringdon, jobmasters & dealers, horses, FA 1919
WHITTLE & PARTNER, general builders, FF 1992
Media Key: FA = Faringdon Advertiser; FDS = Faringdon Dramatic Society; FV = Faringdon Venture; FF = Faringdon Folly; DG = Directory & Gazetteer of Oxon, Berks & Bucks (Dutton, Allen & Co. 1863)
Explanations and Acknowledgements:
1. The photographs shown are from a millennium project called fotoFARINGDON2000. Twenty three amateur photographers volunteered to undertake the massive task of photographing every building in Faringdon and as many of the residents as wished to take part. This unique collection of photographs was made into a virtual tour of the town, and recorded on a CD *. Copies of the CD are lodged in the Oxfordshire County Record Office, the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies, the Town Library, and the Faringdon Tourist Office so that future generations of local, family and social historians will be able to access a digital record of Faringdon as it appeared in the year 2000.
- * Unfortunately, compact disks have proved to be unreliable media for the long term storage of data. My copy is full of errors and with today’s browsers no longer works as it once did when it was last used nearly 20 years ago; so I thought it would be a good idea to retrieve what photograph files I can and use them on this history of shops project. I have now managed to retrieve all the files and have updated the background code in order to publish the original CD with all 3,161 pages on this website, see – fotoFARINGDON2000
2. Each photo has a street number to match that shown on the map at the top of each page. The text under each photograph shows what businesses there once were at each address, the furthest time ago listed first. The year, where added is intended as a rough guide. It is the earliest year for which there is independent evidence available and may, but not necessarily be, the first year of that occupation.
The text under each photograph was obtained initially from lists entitled Faringdon past_businesses_july2014.xlsx, created by Gene Webb of www.faringdon.org in 2014, which she says may not be entirely complete or accurate as much has been obtained from the memories of local people. That file has now been withdrawn and converted to a web page at www.faringdon.org/past-shops-various-streets.html.
3. Some further occupancies and dates were obtained from advertisements placed in the programmes produced by Faringdon Dramatic Society since 1949 and the various shops that have been used over the years for their ticket sales. I have collected these programmes from many people and made them available from the website archives on www.faringdondramatic.org.uk.
4. The following 3 books produced by members of FDAHS were used to provide information mainly over the period 1880-1950: “The Changing Faces of Faringdon and Surrounding Villages” by Rosemary Church, Jim Brown, Millie Bryan and Beryl Newman. Robert Boyd Publications. More detail…
5. Many updates and additions have been made since studying local newspapers and photos in the FDAHS archives.
Researched by Ian Lee, aided by the above, April 2019