We moved to live in the village in 1969, a couple of years before our daughters were born. We wanted to work as a husband and wife team so we bought the hardware shop.
The shop was built in 1903 and started out as a butchers shop. It then became a hairdressers and then a bike shop owned by Rubin Grice. Finally Mr W E Morris turned it into a hardware shop and he ran it for seven years until October 1984 when we took over.
Our ambition was to run a traditional village shop selling everything related to the trade, increasing on the gardening side and the pets side. Later came a huge expansion in the variety of keys cut, now standing at over well over 300, then watch battery fitting, now at over 50 battery types.
After nearly a quarter of a century of very happy years in the shop it came time for us to retire. Fortunately our daughter and son-in-law Helen and Simon wanted to continue the tradition.
I am so pleased to say that Helen and Simon are enjoying it as much as we did, continuing to expand the range of stock, and unlike most shops these days, if there is something the customer needs that they don’t normally stock, they will do their best to get it for you.
They hope to serve the village for many years to come.
By Margaret & Geoffrey Perkins