Stanstead Abbotts Local History Society

SOUTH STREET TO MILLERS LANE

“There was that drapers shop at the top of South Street. The Russells used to run it. I think the family live opposite the Crown now. Next door was Kings the Bakers and confectioners, I always used to buy my bread there. Then there was Emily Aker’s small tea shop, always a funny little business, opened when they liked, never had much custom, all very odd. Another one of those little shops just there was a barbers but I can’t remember much about that. There was Mr Hitch the builder as well as Mrs Owens drapers shop. When I came here it was a private house, drapers opened sometime after I got here, it’s a private house again now.”

“The Co-op comes next, biggest store in the village. It used to be a private grocers run by the Smalls. Jack served his apprenticeship there long before I knew him. Albert’s shoe shop, a cobbler, came next he was a Wilsher from Cappell Lane. There used to be Harwood’s yard before Burtons. It was a builder’s yard now it’s all offices.

“Burton’s old shop used to have a tiny little window, the shop was just as wide as it is now but only went back 10 feet or so. He specialised you see, did not sell all that stuff they do now. He sold tobacco and had a pair of scales for measuring out the tobacco from big tins. Next door is that little building. It used to be a small home. It was turned into a shop about five or six years after I got here. It was Rays the butchers; people saw it as opposition to Halls. Most people went to one and not the other usually. I went to Rays. The Oak public house was Jacks favourite; he used to nip out over the back fence and across the field. He always came back round the road though.  It’s a very old pub, quite nice inside. It’s that Coach House place now; do meals, not a pub now.” [Today it is The Lord Louis]

Ken Burton mounts his bicycle outside his father’s shop, in the 1930’s. To the right is Sweeney’s shop that had been the site of the village smithy.

MILLERS LANE TO GLENMIRE TERRACE

“Millers Lane comes next down the side of the Oak. There were no houses down there in1926 except Hurlock’s bungalow and Miller’s shed. Then they built that sewer place down the end. Think that must have been some time before the second war.  On the other corner was Parker’s the butchers. It’s a lean to shaped sort of building isn’t it? Sam Miller lived in the house and opened a butchers in the extension he built about 1929-30. You know Derek Miller don’t you? well his father was Sam Miller. “

[A much larger wooden building stood on the site before that, reaching right out to the pavement]

“There are then the villas with Glenmire Terrace at the other end. In the middle the Odell’s had their decorating shop. You could get wallpaper there. You borrowed a sample book and ordered from that. Andersons did that as well. There are 14 houses down Glenmire.”

GLENMIRE TERRACE TO THE PIED BULL

“That black and white shop at the end of Glenmire used to be Hodgkin’s the general draper in the 30’s then Jax’s antique shop before the war. The Withchell’s lived in it during the war then back to being an antiques shop, before the doctor went in there. Then there’s Irene’s the hairdressers in the next building. Bit further on was Rays the bakers. It had a bakery down the back and was a sweet shop as well. Jimmy Ingles used to work there, he was a real character well known in the village. [Now the Royal Chef Fish Bar]

Ray’s sweet shop and general store in the late 1920’s. A bakery existed at the back of the building with the shop selling the products under the banner of “Darren Bread.” This had formerly been the site of Blackaby’s the village post office.