Nrw Buckenham businesses as remembered by Arthur Dade

New Buckenham businesses in the 1950s

BUILDERS B Tooke & Sons. Corner Cottage, Church Street. Transport was a horse and cart. Wilfred and Hubert Saunders, Chapel Hill. Transport was a hand cart. They were also undertakers and their workshop was in two of the cottages on Chapel Hill. SADDLE MAKER & George Day, Chapel Hill. MOLE CATCHER CHIMNEY SWEEP & Will Jockey, Marsh Lane, and Snap Mapes, Boosey’s Walk DROVERS HORSE & CARRIAGES Joe Fisher, Market Place. Carriages for weddings and funerals, also a hearse. The carriages etc. were housed in a black shed near entrance to the Church. Later the shed was taken over by A. Barnard. BLACKSMITH A Reeve PUBLIC HOUSES White Horse, King Street. Closed before start of WW2. King’s Head, Market Place. Before WW2 the landlord was A Reilly, who had a son who played for Norwich City F.C., during and after the war the landlord was George Ratley. The George (Inn on the Green). Mr and Mrs Robinson. The Wine Cellars. A Rush, father of Mrs Ethel Powell. LADIES’ CLOTHES & WOOL Joan Goulder. Shop is now part of Mr Sapsford’s house, (Dial House) King Street. POST OFFICE W Aldous. WATCHMAKER Chris Peake (who wore a wooden leg), in Queen Street. JUSTICE OF THE PEACE Maud Godfrey of Stow House, Boosey’s Walk. She was killed on her way back from Norwich at the bottom of Rackham’s Hill, Wrenningham, when her Model T Ford overturned. Mrs Kaye Darley, Rookery Farm. PARCEL & HARDWARE A Barnard Transport. Lorry driver was L Daniels, DELIVERIES Bunwell. Picked up in Norwich and delivered to south Norfolk twice a week. Was also a farmer, buildings next to site of new village hall. Farmed land where new hall now stands. DOCTOR’S SURGERY Dr Blair at St. Mary’s during war. Beech House then The Retreat, then Smith’s in Market Place. GROCERS & DRAPERY Spalding, followed by HJ Tofts. Now Lovell’s, Market Place. E & F Davey, followed by King brothers in King Street. DRAPERY Frank Davey, Chapel Street. Now closed. GREENGROCERY Toddler Smith, Market Place, who also had a round with pony and cart. SOLICITORS Mills & Reeve, took over premises from Toddler Smith. SWEETS & CIGARETTES J Fiddy, Market Place. SWEETS & TOYS Read’s, Vicarage Corner. GENERAL STORE Claxton’s, King Street & CHEMIST COBBLERS H Seville, Chapel Street (also part-time postmaster at Carleton Rode) Reg (”Chiddick”) Robbins, also a hairdresser. BAKERS Mrs Barber, Market Place. Best doughnuts in Norfolk. Followed by J Kemp. Shop now closed. Goulder, King Street. He had a round with horse and cart, later a small van. Roundsman was Roder Garrod. FRIED FISH & CHIPS W Symonds, Chapel Street. Sonny Woodrow, King Street. Goffin, after the war, King Street (home of R Mackrell). WET FISH W Symonds, Chapel Street. Also had a round with a small blue Morris 8. Curing house in back yard. Brenda Smith, Buckenham Road, Banham. Her husband (Les) ran a small chicken processing plant in Marsh Lane. BUTCHER Myhill & Sons. Shop near Town’s End, had a round on a trade bike. Shop later became a cafe, owned by Nick Page. Powell, King Street. Later R Sutton. Both these shops had their own slaughter houses. LADIES’ HAIRDRESSERS Joad Page. Shop over garage at Beech House after war. Flo Boston. Evacuee from London. Shop in King Street, now home of R Mackrell. CYCLE SHOPS Foxes, Queen Street. Cycles, hardware etc. and petrol pumps. Supplied and maintained cycles to Norfolk Education for pupils around area (Tibenham, Bunwell etc.) to attend Old Buckenham secondary school (pupils from 11 years old). BUS SERVICE R Smith & Sons. Corner of Market Place and Chapel Street. Petrol pumps, cycles etc. First solid tyred bus in area. Bus service to Norwich later taken over by United Counties. Housed three large double decker buses in garage in Chapel Street. BANK King Street. BOTTLED MILK ROUNDS B W Cross, Hunts Farm. Transport was three wheeled cycle of the ice cream type. J Coleman, Buckenham House, Old Buckenham. C Frost, Carleton Rode. Transport was pony and trap with the milk out of a churn. FIRE ENGINE Engine and hand pump housed in Boosey's Walk. Horse drawn, later pulled by car. (A Smith). Last fire attended was at cottages on common. ICE CREAM MAKER Tip Self, Wash Farm, (Margaret Wright's father) was a full time blacksmith at Old Buckenham but also made ice cream and attended cricket matches on sports field down by the canal and fetes. Small cones ½d, large cones ld, wafers 2d. Transport was motorbike.

Information related by Arthur Dade at a Society meeting in 2000. Updating notes in red.

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