At precisely 10.30pm, Fanny Smith and Alice Stammers locked the front door of the fruit shop at number Three, Commerce Place, and pulled down the shutters.

With business over for the day the two women went upstairs to their living quarters as they did each night and settled down to their supper they would come back down later to clear up.

Like so many of the residents of Garnant, neither Fanny nor Alice were natives.

Fanny Mansfield had been born in Bath in 1869 and at the age of 25 was whisked of her feet by a smooth-talking travelling fruit salesman from Wolverhampton by the name of William Henry Smith.

They married in the summer of 1894 and in little over a year, a son Raymond - was born.

All was not well with their new-born however and Raymond was classed as paralysed at birth quite possibly a Victorian diagnosis for cerebral palsy.

For a time at least and quite possibly because of Raymonds condition - the Smith family settled in Bristol. William continued his life as a commercial travelling salesman while Fanny remained at home with Raymond and Phillip, the familys latest addition, who arrived in the early months of 1901.

The Smith family had also gained another albeit unofficial - member by the time Phillip had been born. The couple had taken on a general maid to help relieve the pressure on Fanny while William was on the road.

Alice Stammers was Londoner, born in 1888, and by 1901 was already becoming a fixture in the Smith household. She would remain at Fannys side until the death of her employer in 1950.

By 1911, William too had tired of the life of a travelling salesman and, with Fanny, Phillip and Alice, had set up in business running a fruit shop in Sale, Cheshire. Raymond meanwhile had made a patient at a residential school for epileptic children close by at Nether Alderley, Cheshire.

Life in the north of England did not go especially well for the Smiths however and by the middle of the decade they had returned to Bristol. Raymond died in the city aged 23 in 1918.

Soon after the death of their eldest son, the Smith moved on once more, taking up the tenancy of a vacant shop in the village of Garnant, Carmarthenshire. Alice would help out in the shop as well as with the domestic chores of the household.

Once the two women had lock up the shop and gone upstairs, they settled down to eat in a room at the rear of the first floor of Number Four, Commerce Place.

The room overlooked the rear of the row and beyond towards Arcade Terrace and further still to the Amman Tin Works.

As they sat and ate their meal they heard not a sound nor saw any movement at the rear of Commerce Place.

They heard no barking dogs, no shouts, no awful screams, nor did they see a soul escaping from the rear of Star Stores next door.

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