Village Stores c1955, Bury
Village Stores c1955, Bury Ref: B509017
Memories of Village Stores c1955, Bury
My Father Worked at This Shop
My father Ron Burchell worked at the shop seen in this photograph. The Burchell family had lived in the village for generations. The owner of the shop was Edward Grinstead and his wife Millie who was my godmother. We lived at the thatched Old Cottage behind the hedge on the left. My dad had been a shop boy here before he joined the RAF in the 1920s. When he left the RAF in 1946 he worked there again. The stores sold a wide range of food and hardware, and was also a Post Office. Sugar and rice etc would be weighed out and wrapped up in 'sugar paper' often in a deep pink or purple colour. Just after the war we had to take our coupons to the shop and the amount needed were cut out of our ration book with a big pair of scissors kept on a string by the till and the fearsome bacon slicer.
The shop was the hub of the various social groups of the... Read more
Life in Bury For A Little Boy.
Millie Grinsted nee Cheeseman was my great aunt. She was the sister of my paternal grandfather William Edward Cheeseman. I remember staying with her and Edward at times during and after the war. I remember on one occasion grinding coffee beans up in the attic and putting the grounds in packages for sale in the store. I remember on one occasion opening the cage and letting all her budgies and canaries out. I was in much trouble over that. I went with Edward a few times as he delivered food and other things to people in the neighbourhood. We often went to church together on Sunday mornings. Millie was my godmother. We last saw them in 1977 when my wife and I visited England. Edward was a great storyteller and we could sit for hours listening to him. I remember my father, Millie's nephew, talking about playing tennis across the road from the store, back in the 1930's with... Read more
Bury & local memories
Read and share memories of Bury and West Sussex inspired by Frith photos.
Bury Church And Ferry
On this picture you can see the steps used by the ferry man from the 1920s to the 1940s. He used a pole to steer the punt from the Bury bank to the Amberley bank. The punt was attached to a chain which stretched across the river lying on the bottom. The fare in the late 1940s was a theepenny piece. The ferry man was my 'Uncle' Bob Dudden, who took up the duties of ferryman when he left the Navy after the first World War. Bob was not really my uncle, but he and my grandfather ran away to join the navy together in about 1912. Sadly, my grandfather was severely wounded in the war, but Uncle Bob came through, having had the job on board of barber!
Uncle Bob also took care of the grassy area behind the steps.
He and his wife 'Aunt Min' lived in the house you can see on the left of the picture. Aunt Min was quite eccentric, she kept hens, which... Read more
