Tom Taylor & Son, Fish Dock Road, Grimsby Docks; J. Bygrave Ltd. doorway mosaic c1890s.

This beautiful, c1890s, polychrome mosaic floor can be seen in the doorway of Tom Taylor’s shop. Photographed in 2022.

John Bygrave, a farmer’s son, was born in Sutton, Norfolk in 1848. By 1881, John Bygrave was an outfitter in Grimsby employing 5 men. He lived at 77 Orwell Street. In 1891, John, a seaman’s outfitter, was living at 127 Cleethorpe Road. His widowed mother and sister, from Norfolk, were also at the address. In 1901, John, a clothier and shopkeeper, was living at 2 Hainton Avenue with his sister, Louisa.

It appears that John Bygrave returned to Norfolk before 1905, married a spinster at least 25 years his junior, and ran what was probably the family farm at Stalham, near Sutton in Norfolk. John died in 1935.