Long before supermarkets arrived on the Isle of Wight, one Newport family firm quietly created what was effectively the Island’s own grocery chain – Wray & Sons, a business that served Islanders for nearly two centuries.
For generations the name Wray was synonymous with groceries, bread and everyday provisions across the Isle of Wight. From its headquarters in Newport, the business expanded into a network of shops and bakeries supplying towns and villages across the Island.
At the heart of the operation stood the firm’s premises at 4 Carisbrooke Road in Newport, where the company operated both its grocery store and its bakery.
By 1950, the business had already been established on that same site for more than 150 years, placing its origins around the turn of the 19th century. Few Island businesses could claim such longevity.
Like many Georgian and early Victorian grocers, the shop would originally have sold basic provisions such as flour, sugar, tea and household goods, with customers served from behind counters where goods were weighed out and wrapped by hand.
Over time the Wray family expanded the enterprise far beyond a single shop. By the early decades of the 20th century Wray & Sons had grown into a substantial Island business with branches in East Cowes, Sandown, Totland, Bembridge, Ryde and Wootton, creating what was effectively an Island-wide chain of grocery stores decades before the arrival of modern supermarkets.
Central to the whole operation was the bakery in Newport. Bread baked at the Carisbrooke Road premises was distributed to the company’s branches across the Island, ensuring that fresh loaves produced in Newport reached towns and villages many miles away.
The scale of the operation became clear in the 1930s when the main premises in Carisbrooke Road – including the bakery – were rebuilt and greatly enlarged.
One of the key figures behind the company’s expansion was Frederick James Wray, managing director of Wray & Sons during the first half of the 20th century. He succeeded his father, Edward James Wray, continuing a family tradition that had already spanned generations.
Under his leadership the business expanded significantly and became one of the best-known grocery firms on the Isle of Wight. He was also active in trade organisations including the Isle of Wight Grocers’ Council and the Island Master Bakers’ Association, and served on Newport’s Food Control Committee during wartime rationing.
The business continued to grow. In 1947, Wray & Sons took over the retail side of another long-established Newport grocery business, Jordan and Stanley of St James’s Square, after the death of Leonard Jordan.
By the mid-20th century, Wray & Sons had become one of the most recognisable grocery names on the Isle of Wight.
For many Islanders the firm was simply part of everyday life. Customers visited counters where assistants weighed out tea, sugar and flour, while delivery vans travelled across the Island carrying groceries and freshly baked bread to homes and shops.
The bakery itself left particularly strong memories for those who visited the shop.
“Great shop and pastries, best ever cherry cake – so many cherries you bought it by weight. Never seen the like again.”
“Best doughnuts ever. I can still remember the smell in the shop when mum would walk up the High Street in the late 50s through to the mid 60s buying the weekly shop before supermarkets opened.”
“The aroma as you entered, I can still remember it now.”
“As I walked past I could smell the aroma of baking and pies. Lunch time I’d often pop in to get something to eat – meat pies, sausage rolls, iced buns and Isle of Wight doughnuts with the currants in.”
The shop was also remembered for its traditional counters and personal service.
“I remember the shop very well as a child – the old-fashioned scales and buying just a slice or two of ham or cheese.”
The bakery products themselves became something of a Newport institution.
“They were truly an amazing bakers. Their doughnuts were fantastic and the bread was beautiful. Loved Maxy Wray – he used to burn the coffee beans regularly then call them high roast!”
“The lovely smells of fresh ground coffee, ham off the bone, fresh bread and cream cakes. On a Saturday at closing time you could go in with a shilling and get what was called a big bag of stale cake – which they weren’t, just leftovers from the week.”
Among the treats fondly remembered were some distinctive bakery favourites.
“Traffic light cakes – shortbread with three different coloured jams. Coconut pyramids. Our great grandparents would get them every Saturday for us.”
The Newport headquarters finally closed its doors on 29th August 1987, bringing to an end a family grocery business whose roots stretched back almost two centuries.
“If we could fast forward from when they shut to today, I’m sure people would still be flocking to this wonderful shop. Local products, with provenance, personal service and within walking distance of homes – it would thrive.”
Do you remember Wray & Sons in Newport – the shop on Carisbrooke Road, its bakery or the treats you used to buy there? Share your memories in the comments below.
I remember Wrays in Totland very well. My parents ran a hotel in the village and they were big customers. I recall whole sides of bacon being carried in to the shop. Rashers were sliced in front of the customer. I was a boarder at Bembridge School and to supplement the meagre food, I had an account at the tiny Wrays in the village — I cannot imagine any shop offering that these days, especially for a small order of perhaps a jar of Nescafe and a packet of biscuits. Those were the days when shops trusted their customers.
Yes I remember them well used to call on them when I worked for Rothmans
Great article, the good old days.
Another time when life was nicer ..not the shithole we have now.
So true
Say the person who orders on Amazon and shops at Asda LOL
Sausage rolls,meat pies
The colour photo of the van parked outside a pair of semi-detached houses was taken in New Road at Porchfield. We lived in the right-hand one (called “Avondale” from 1982 until 2001.
Oh I wish we could back in time to the days of Wray and Sons.
Marvellous times!
It does feel good going to the indie shops we still have please give them a go and the farm shops.
When I worked in St. James Square, Newport, I’d park my car on Caesars Road. I’d walk up Drill Hall Road, where, often, I’d get a whiff of baking. The aroma was the same, growing up, what I would call a warm, homely feeling.
It’s a shame that they closed in 1987. Fondest memories were their current doughnuts. Does the recipe still exist? Does anyone still make those types of doughnuts?
I would often pop to the shop in Newport High Street during lunch. Freshly baked and filled cheese-and-salad rolls, followed by either an iced bun or a currant doughnut.
The best was the service. Human interaction where staff knew their regulars.
I remember we used to write our groceries in the little red book and drop it in the cash desk booth and pay for last week, and then go and get our meat and green groceries in Newport. when we got home our groceries were waiting in a box on the doorstep, what service! My favourite cake was the iced almond ring Yummmmm.