The Other Village Shop

I was born and brougt up in the village of Garboldisham in Norfolk and have so many memories of when I was a child - I always felt safe and everybody knew each other, a real village. One of my best memories is of the village shops - the General PO & Stores were looked after then by a lovely mixed race family called the Fades. However, the shop dearest in my memory is the little tiny cottage shop set down the lane next door to the main stores. At one time also the bakery used to be down here but at the very bottom was Miss Chillingsworth's! I can still hear the clanging of the bell that was above the door and alerted the lovely lady that she had customers - she used to appear round the counter from her private quarters within seconds - the little front room of the shop was full to the brim with everything you can imagine and had an especially fantastic selection of sweets, penny chews, sherbet saucers, parma violets, traffic light lollies, chocolate mice, coconut tobacco and bars of Old Jamaica Rum chocolate - it was the best place to go with your 10p coin as you'd certainly come out with a huge mixed bag! At Christmas she would take you into her 'back room' where she had so many things for us kids to buy as secret gifts for our mums and dads - it will stay in my memory forever. She always wore her long hair in a braid which was wrapped around her head and although sometimes she could be a little snappy, she never turned us kids away - even when we only had 2p to spend. Sadly I got older and the lures of Diss became too much and I have to admit that to this day, I really don't remember the old shop closing or where she ended her days. I am absolutely certain of one thing however, shops like this have disappeared from our lives forever and I'm just very glad that I have had the opportunity to record this lovely memory.