Tony Eades, who, with his family, ran the grocery store in Julian Road, died on 27 August 2020 at the age of 78. He had been ill with sepsis since the first weekend of lockdown in March.
Tony Eades was a big man and a local character. Latterly, he would often be seen in the shop, leaning against the deep freeze, happy to tell stories of his youthful adventures and of more recent times when running the shop might mean delivering to outlying pubs and restaurants late at night, with Lynn, his wife, and Mike, their son as a baby, and also bringing back fruit and vegetables from the London markets.
If not in the shop he might be on the land the family have at Swainswick growing vegetables to sell. Tony loved his big tractors and vans with number plates VEG. He might also be in a van outside the shop playing with his four grandchildren. He once kept a kitten he had found by the side of the road in his pocket until it was strong enough to join their other domestic animals.
Tony was the fourth generation of Eades to have a grocer’s shop in Bath. Their original shop, that had been on the high pavement further along Julian Road, was destroyed in the Baedeker Raids of April 1942. Tony hadn’t immediately started work in the shop but had done his National Service in the Auxiliary Fire Service and then worked as an aerial rigger.
When I moved to Marlborough Buildings 32 years ago, the previous owners of my house left a note about the neighbourhood. It mentioned Eades’s shop and Lynn was described as a ‘poppet’. In those days she served customers at the counter but now is busy behind the scenes. It might seem like an old fashioned shop but Eades are amazingly up to date with their vegetables and stock. They grew and sold courgettes in 1976 (the year that courgette seed was first available in Britain). Italian turnip tops – ‘Jimmy the Rapper’ – and cavallo nero have all appeared in the shop well ahead of supermarkets stocking them.
We will miss Tony and offer sincere condolences to Lynn, Mike, Sally and their children, Will, Lizzie, Edwin and Bea. It has been a hard loss for them at a time when they are so busy serving our neighbourhood through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Susan Williamson