The village shop was once the Plough and Harrow pub, c.1841–1905. Probably the pub already sold some groceries and other goods as well as ale, and was converted to greater shop use in 1904. The 1904 trade directory listed both Charles Cooper (grocer and draper) and Joseph Radford (publican). After the beer license was removed in 1905 Charles Cooper and his wife Fanny continued to run the former Plough and Harrow as a grocer and draper shop until 1925. They were followed by Herbert and Alice-Bessie Saunders who ran the shop 1927–1952 with assistance from Herbert’s sister Florence and their daughters Jean and Kathleen. The premises were sold to John and Leah Davies in 1952, who ran the shop from 1952–1972. They were followed by Charles and Caroline Woods (1972–1988), Richard and Robert Baines (1989–1991), and Raj and Kanwaljit Sanghera (1991–2021). Since 2021 the shop has been run by Thiru Kunaratnam.
The shop added in the Post Office in 1993, thus saving the village from losing such a valuable resource. In 2015 the owners Raj and Kanwal undertook a complete refurbishment. They were able to keep the shop going during the work by splitting the building in two and running the shop from the new part while refurbishing the old. An official opening by the then MP Heidi Allen was held in April 2016, which also marked Raj and Kanwal’s 25th anniversary of running the shop.
If you have any information or photos of the village shop, please leave a comment below.
See also: Plough and Harrow
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