The woven rush bag for customer’s meat was used by Anness family of butchers who traded in Diss town centre.

The Anness family was just one that traded as butchers over the years from The Shambles, the building that now houses Diss Museum in the Market Place. But their woven rush bag, stamped ‘E Anness, St Nicholas Street, Diss, Phone 105’, shows that the family business had shops elsewhere in the town centre over the years.

From the late 19th century Walter Anness ran his business at 29 St Nicholas Street, and the 1901 Census listed his son Frederick, a butcher’s assistant, living at the shop with his sisters Ella and Ethel. Walter, who was born in Roydon and later lived in Palgrave, also traded at The Shambles and in Victoria Road, Diss.

In around 1930, Walter’s son Ernest Anness began trading from the St Nicholas Street premises, today the shop continues to operate as a butchers but now as D A Browne & Son, notable for the picture of a fine Hereford bull above the door.

The Shambles were originally open-air market stalls where animals were slaughtered and meat sold. The slaughterhouse moved elsewhere in the 19th century, finding a home in Chapel Street, but butchers continued to operate there including S Day & Co, G W Webb, Webb & Pike and W Spink. Another of Walter’ Anness’s sons, Walter Henry, traded from the Shambles in the first half of the 20th century.

In later years, The Shambles became a florists but when the building was renovated before becoming home to Diss Museum, features of its life as a butchers were retained including meat hooks in the ceiling, which can still be seen by visitors, and tiles on some of the walls.

Anness Butcher's Rush Bag

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