c1955, Steeple Claydon

Challoners Hill

c1955
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I lived at no. 1 Challoners Hill otherwise known as The Stores. In the photograph the petrol pumps are just visible on the left hand side of the road.
Across the road Vic Burrows ran the bakery and we were treated to the smell of freshly baked bread every morning. Mrs Whiting had the newsagents and Cyril and Ruby Griffin ran the Fountain Pub. There were five pubs in Steeple Claydon whereas poor old Middle Claydon, East Claydon and Botolph Claydon didn't have one between them. We had nine shops including a post office and they supplied all our needs. At Austins you could buy fishing tackle and a penknife and get a haircut if you wanted one. Dennis Robinson, who also ran the Phoenix pub, would mend your bike and, (and this was torture for us boys) would display the latest Raliegh bike in his workshop window. We would gaze at it for hours making ambitious plans to raise the ten or twelve pounds required to buy it. We... Read more