Village shops in 1936
By Mark Knight | May 11th, 2009 | Category: Guest Blogs | 12 comments(Originally published in free4all)
Overseal Shops.
Modern lifestyle changes things; car culture has affected our lives in many ways and shopping habits are one of the major things to have altered the framework of village life. Vast out of town superstores selling cheap food and mass produced goods are what we all think we want.
In the mid 1990’s, my grandmother, Marie Pritchard (née Yates), made a list of the shops in Overseal that she remembered from about 1936 when she was 14 years old. That was the age she started work, working a 71 hour seven day week- although Wednesday and Sunday were half days- 7am until 1pm on Wednesday, with a lie in and a 9am start on Sunday. For that she earned the princely sum of 6/-d. She also made a note that in 1936 general stores were allowed to make 2/6d in the pound profit.
The list Marie made includes Spring Cottage as her dad Bram Yates was born there and many of his family still lived there. The county boundary moved at midnight on September the 30th 1897 dividing Spring Cottage from Overseal and moving Overseal into Derbyshire. Old habits die hard however and local Leicestershire newspapers were still reporting on Overseal matters at least into the 1950’s.
The list may not be comprehensive, so if you remember any more shops or if you remember things differently I’d be pleased to hear from you. I’ve repeated the list here as Marie wrote it down; she didn’t remember all of the names of the shops and I remember some of them much later with different names:
Spring Cottage.
By Railway: General Stores.
Long Row: Sweet shop.
Woodville Road.
Harts: Green Grocery (bottom house).
Goachers: General Stores.
Newboroughs: General Stores. (Parkers).
Langfords: Drapery.
Jones: General Stores.
Kirbys: General Stores.
Rogers: Stationery.
Yeadons: Shoes & repairs.
Co-Op: General Stores.
Co-Op: Butcher.
Sutherds: Bikes & repairs.
Dennis: Chemist.
Parkers: Fish & Chips.
Mugglestons: Chemist.
Hurdleys: General Stores.
Deacons: General Stores. (Later?)
Lullington Road.
Sherrats: Paints. (earlier: “Top” Leedham’s Farm).
Culls: General Stores.
Main Street.
Mugglestons: Garage.
Hunts: General Stores.
Shipmans: Shoe repairs.
Butchers: (Later electrical, then material).
Hughes: General & joiners. (Mrs. West).
Smith: Hairdressers.
Lanes: Fish & chips.
? Post Office.
Horsfields: General & taxi (bus)
Moira Road.
Dr. MacPherson: Doctors. (Later Dr. Waugh).
Coronation Street.
Newboroughs: General Stores & bakery.
Burton Road.
Stanfields: Clothing & millinery.
Mr. Marks: Dentist (Front room in house).
Pecks: Greengrocer & General Stores.
Deacons: Paper shop.
Fishers: General Stores. (now Co-Op).
Newtown.
Rollestons General Stores.
Rickman’s Corner.
? Paper Shop.
Mount Pleasant.
? General Stores.
Shortheath.
? General Stores.
This makes a total of 43 shops including a GP and a dentist and four Public Houses: The Robin Hood, The Nag’s Head, The Boot and The Navigation. The Boot and The Nag’s Head are gone long since.
I understand that there had previously been many more shops than this so if anyone has any information on these I’d be very pleased to hear from you. I’m told that many people opened up their front rooms to sell a variety of goods and services so perhaps these were not shops as we would consider them now.
On that note, does anyone remember the chapel on Burton Road opposite the bottom of Coronation Street? I remember it as a house fronting directly onto the pavement and around the back there was an overgrown garden with the occasional headstone poking out of the grass. I think there was an old cast iron fence around it. Marie remembered going there as a child- her friend lived there. They had an old stone sink in the kitchen with a headstone laid flat to stand on to do the washing up. I recall the house/ chapel being knocked down in the 1970’s to make way for the modern house that stands there now and the talk at the time was that an Anglo Saxon burial ground was found. That seems unlikely to me now. I’m told that this was the site of a Baptist chapel, built perhaps around 1860. If anyone has a photograph of this then I’d like to see it and perhaps copy and add it to a pictorial collection of the village that I’m planning to make available to all. If so, or if you have any other comments or stories, then please contact me on 01283 761752.
Mark Knight
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
Thanks Kris, if you’re interested in the village history then drop me a line, maybe we can work on it together…
Paper shop Rickman,s Corner was known as Jackie Whites (1940,s)
General Stores Mount Pleasant one was Mrs Clarke, one was Mrs Pipes they were in the houses on the left nearly opposite the pub, and a sweet shop next to the Chapel (1940,s). They were just the front rooms of the houses and are still standing.
Thanks Steve, that’s just the information I was looking for. Do you have any more? Mark
Brookes Garage at Mount Pleasant
I was born in Burton Road in 1939 and lived there until 1965 and can remember most of the shops listed. A few comments about these :–
There was a butcher’s shop in Woodville Road just on the topside of Green Fortune Cottages (just above Stanleigh Road).
Astle’s Garage was just above this (opposite the Rec. entrance)
Reg. Deacon’s hardware shop was notorious for being cluttered. More than two customers then the shop was full. If you wanted to buy nails by weight, he either passed the scale pan to you or had to go outside and round to the front. If he wanted to get any stock from upstairs, he had to go up step by step, moving stock up and down each step. I can remember once him doing this for a customer who wanted soap powder and after coming down she decided she wanted anothe packet so the process had to be repeated
Doctor Ghosh acted as locum between Drs Macpherson and Waugh.
Fisher’s shop in Burton Road was previously known as Sherrats (the paint people). The grandfather lived in the bungalow next door and built touring caravans in his front garden. After his death, the bungalow was bought by Sid and Daisy Knight who previously owned Norbreck, the poultry farm in Burton Road. This was previously owned by Bernard Grice who had a Hardware shop in Swadlincote.
I can remember the house opposite Coronation Street having some gravestones, but it was never referred to has being a Baptist Church
Thanks Bill. I didn’t know about the touring caravan building in front of the bungalow! I lived there from 1970 until1975 with my parents, next to the shop that was then owned by Ted Pratt and his family. I think Syd and Daisy moved there in about 1978. After they sold Norbreck in 1965 they kept The British Oak in Swadlincote until it was knocked down to make way for part of the leisure centre and at this time they moved back to Overseal. Norbreck was sold by the Knights to the Richardsons, who keep it still. Interestingly, the deal was done in the Cricketts Inn- you had to go out of Overseal if you wanted to drink anything other than Marstons beer!
Going through my dad’s photo’s (most of the old photo’s on the site are his) we recently came across a photo of Astle’s garage and if you have a look at the second batch of the photo’s you’ll find one of the Astles lorries made up for the gala day festivites.
I’m glad you’ve confirmed my memory of the gravestones in the Baptist graveyard, I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d imagined it or not.
Thanks again,
Mark Knight.
According to the19th century Trade Directory for Netherseal and Overseal Parishes website, there was a General Baptist Church built in 1840 (see White 1863). In Kelly 1899, the Baptist Church was rebuilt in 1896. Unfortunately there is no indication whether these were on the same site. I suppose it could be possible the original one was opposite Coronation Street.
I think the original one was opposite Coronation Street. Harry Perry told me his great grandfather was heavily involved with the building of it. Harry was born in 1918 so the dates would be about right- and I recently came across an old map showing a chapel in that spot. So I think we’re right…
Hi, I’m interested in the history of Overseal as the Hunts shop referred to above was owned by my grandfather. I have a picture of it somewhere which i’ll try to scan in along with quite a few postcards from the village.
Hi, my mother in law recently told me that she was evacuated to Overseal in 1939 when she was just 7 years old. She stayed with a lovely family for three years (Thacker?) and didn’t want to return home. Sadly she never kept contact with them on her return to Birmingham. A boy she had grown up with in Birmingham and later married , was evacuated to the same village and he stayed at a Bike shop. His name was Wilfred Edmonds, her name, Doreen Marklew. She has such fond memories of her time there and I thought it would be lovely if you were able to share any info you may have with me. Do any of your readers recall sharing their homes with evacuees?
Thank you for taking time to read this
Denise