This was managed by Mr Herbert Closman, who was also publican at the Blois Arms in Yoxford. The entrance was directly onto the pavement, with a step down into the shop. We leaned our bicycles against the shop window. The shop was mostly run by Mr Churchyard, wearing a dark grey linen-type coat. He made the weekly deliveries in a small black van. Orders were taken and written out item by item. The bill was written out in longhand from an order earlier in the week. These could be made by phone after one was installed around 1948. Deliveries included bacon, Cheddar cheese, tea, coffee and sugar, tins of fruit and veg, biscuits, ingredients for baking cakes, Golden Syrup, lavatory paper. Our deliveries were brought round to he back door, which was of the stable-door style, opening in two halves. Whoever was at home put the items on the kitchen table and unpacked them Not forgetting the Digger flake tobacco for Father’s pipe!
In the store, biscuits were in square tins arranged below the main counter. Sugar was weighed into cobalt blue 1lb and 2lb bags. These were sometimes used for baking soda. Cheese was cut off by wire and came from the main store in Yoxford. Tins were stacked pyramid-style. Fruit and veg were at the other end with sacks of potatoes. There were narrow shelves with some medicines. There were a few fancy goods – hair pins, hair clips, brooches etc.
There were also branches in Peasenhall and Kelsale but deliveries were made to the villages in between.
(From notes kept by Janet Barnes (nee Woolnough) when she was young. She grew up at Yankee Lodge on Middleton Moor, now a Care Home).
June 2023