Joseph Smith Fletcher

The Borough Treasurer Joseph Smith Fletcher

The Borough Treasurer by J. S. Fletcher

Halfway up the north side of Highmarket's main street an ancient stone door, imposing enough to suggest it was originally the entrance to some crenellated palace or manor, gave access to a square courtyard flanked by equally ancient buildings.

"What those buildings had been used for on other days was not obvious to the casual, casual observer, but to the less attentive their current use was obvious enough. There were piles of timber from Norway; there were piles of slate from Wales; here was Aberdeen marble, and Portland cement: the old rooms of the gray buildings were filled with all the things one needs to make a house: wrought iron, zinc, lead, tiles, large coils of pipes, warehouses of domestic appliances. And on a gleaming brass plate, set into the wall, just beyond the door, the words were deeply engraved: Mallalieu and Cotherstone, Builders and entrepreneurs ...