Asbee's Shop
This photograph of the village street and the Asbees' shop dates from some time before the First World War. On the left is the now 50 High Street The woman wearing the dark skirt is Nellie Asbee, the shopkeeper. She and her two sisters lived in the house. Their father also lived there, and kept the shop before Nellie took it over. Minnie Asbee kept house for the family, and Emily worked as a housekeeper elsewhere. Emily and Millie were formal and very correct ladies. Nellie was more friendly and cheery.
The walls inside the shop were lined on both sides with wooded drawers containing the stock. On the left, groceries of all kinds were sold. Sugar and flour and such items were weighed on scales and poured into paper bags; coffee was fresh ground from beans. Cheeses were cut with a wire on a block. Old Mr. Asbee was said to be very exact in making up the weights of fruit precisely.
At the right hand counter clothes and boots were sold, along with shirts, collars and all kinds of haberdashery. At a door at the back left of the shop, paraffin for lighting and cooking could be bought.
When Nellie Asbee retired from shopkeeping, the shop was taken over by Mr. and Mrs. Philip Sheidrick, who lived at Swaffham Lodge and kept the shop until the 1950's. Then the premises became a private residence.
The gate at the right of the photograph led into the Infant School playground, where the lower corner of the churchyard is now situated. The Infant School was north of the church gate, the school for older children was to the south of it. Both were demolished when the present school was built in the 1920's