Robert Raikes' House In 1772, he moved into the house to live with his family. Robert Raikes was a promoter of the Sunday school movement, he held Sunday school sessions in the houses garden and Roberts wife used to serve plum cake to the children. After his death, it was again used as a merchants house and shop. There were minor alterations made to the building throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1952, the building was grade II listed. In 1973, the Dirty Duck restaurant opened on the site later becoming the Golden Cross public house in 1975. In 2006, Samuel Smiths
Robert Raikes the Elder employed by a wealthy distiller, Samuel Hasbart, to launch a newspaper in Norwich. Hasbart commissioned Raikes to print a newspaper in favour of the tory party, in opposition to the whig-leaning "Norwich Gazette". Raikes' newspaper was unsuccessful, and failed after a few weeks. By June, Raikes had moved to Huntingdonshire, where he launched the "St Ives Post Boy". On 2 May 1720, Raikes, in partnership with William Dicey, founded the "Northampton Mercury". A year later, the partners set up a second press in Northgate Street, Gloucester, from where the "Gloucester Journal" first appeared on 9 April 1722. In September 1725,