| home | search | back | helmdon.com®   home > history resources > articles index > the stores, helmdon   Helmdon Historical Articles The Stores, Helmdon 1921 - 1962     Following the closure of Helmdon Post Office and shop (situated in Station Road) Mary Morris (nee Smith) was prompted to write from her home in Gorleston, Norfolk. The Stores, Helmdon, came into our family in 1921 when my grandfather, John Henry Smith, who lived in the Sulgrave shop, bought the property for the newlyweds; his son William Francis Smith and Rosamund Victoria Smith, known in the village over the years as Bill and Queennie.  The shop was run and stocked from Sulgrave and my father, Bill, used to go to all the surrounding villages for orders which were delivered two days later.  I was born above the shop on July 1926 with the assistance of District Nurse Walters, whose husband Sam ran the Helmdon village bus. The village was well served with shops.  The “Top Shop” sold groceries, as we did, and was run by Norman Watson and his wife, the Post Office was kept by Eddie Shrimplin, a butcher’s shop run by Bob Buckingham and a bakehouse run by Mr Oakley.  I always wondered why we had such a large well-equipped bakehouse attached to our shop which was not used after 1921.  I wondered why no baker was found to run it – perhaps the number of inhabitants in the village was not great enough to warrant two bakers.  Many Sunday joints were cooked at the baker’s, together with Yorkshire puddings, to help those without ovens.              My sister was born in 1931.  We both attended Helmdon School, where Miss Barnes was the headmistress and little Miss Page took the infant class.  Just before the war my mother and father took over the complete running of the Helmdon shop when my grandfather died.  A few more people came to the village as evacuees, but there was little growth of the business as ration books were issued to everyone and mostly people had to stay with one store.  Shops could not build up their sales as most goods were in short supply, so things became very static.      At the end of the war my father’s health was deteriorating and my mother found the running of the shop with one, albeit very able, assistant Phyllis Seckington, becoming harder, so, in 1948 just after our marriage, my husband Aubrey and I moved to Helmdon to take over the running of the shop.                In 1949 our son Patrick was born and my parents Queennie and Bill said goodbye to the stores and move to End Cottage in the village.  The end of rationing made the sale of groceries much easier.  Frozen food first became popular along with ice cream.   We opened for one hour on Sunday afternoons for the sake for ice cream only.   Above the shop we started a lending library as well as the sale of woollen clothing and shoes.  My husband also ran a taxi service.  The bakehouse was used as a warehouse with the top floor used by the Cubs and Scouts.  The outside store house held a large paraffin tank, and as paraffin was used for heating and cooking it was sold in five gallon drums.      Our daughter, Victoria, was born in 1952, both children being born at home with the assistance of District Nurse Kelly.   The Post Office changed hands to us and our living room was knocked into a shop to accommodate the Post Office.  There was also the travelling van run by Bill Duncombe.  Sandbags were kept handy, as in heavy rain the whole street was flooded up to the doorsteps, but it never came inside. Owing to my ill health, we sold the shop to Mr Roylance and moved to Gorleston Norfolk.  1962 was the end of a 41 association of our family with The Stores, Helmdon. Mary Morris, nee Smith          (Reprinted from Talkabout, Spring 1995.) See also article no.54   Shops in Helmdon by Ross Vicars

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