David Greig Shop

A Memory of Egham.

My granddad, Ron Beeson, was the manager of David Greig shop in Egham High Street from around 1956 until he died. My grandparents, Dad and uncle lived above the shop and my parents met when my mum went to work there. I spent a lot of time at the shop and flat when I was very young and they are some of my earliest memories. To get to the shop from the flat you had to come through the stock room full of boxes and then into the cheese room.
I can remember the cheese room was always full of great lumps of cheese waiting to be cut up. Granddad always warning not to touch the cheese wires lest I cut my fingers off. There were Edams so big I couldn't lift them.
I only have to smell saw dust to take me straight back to the butchers department. Granddad auctioning off sausages last thing on Saturday night. The white tiles interspersed with ones with purple and green thistles on and big glass counters.
There was a cash room where I learned to count, counting pennies, sitting on a tall stall. Big freezers that made a noise like a merry go round. I remember stacking tins on shelves, learning to read the labels. When I was about four, Granddad put me in one of the big shop windows and I did a song and dance.
Seeing the picture (High street 1965) reminded me of 'helping' Granddad wind in the awnings on Saturday night.
At Christmas I can remember the new open topped freezer with turkeys in it - they seemed enormous.
Granddad would take me across the road to the paper shop (Coventrys?) and buy the Beano and Topper and sweeties - as much for him as me I think.
During the sugar shortage, sugar had to be weighed out into paper bags, I'm not sure why that is such a vivid memory.
To get to the flat above you had to pass the door that led down to the cellar which I always found frightening, although I have no idea why. Upstairs, Granddad would sit in one of those fireside chairs, by the kitchen fire (strangely enough) next to the window looking out on to the literary Institute. There was a budgie in a cage behind him and he always had cigarette ash on his tie. The rooms of the flat were quiet, big, Victorian in proportion.
The flat had a garden which my grandmother tended, she had roses, lily of the valley and London pride. The smell was delicious. She would take me to Stopps the bakers and buy rolls and buns and we would picnic in the garden.
Ron was a wonderful granddad and I know many people in Egham loved him, it seemed like he knew everyone.













Added 05 April 2013

#240829

Comments & Feedback

In 1964 I was 5 and we lived in a house in Tite Hill, Engelfield Green. I remember going with my mother to Grieg's and looking up high onto the marble slabbed counter tops and the sawdust on the floor.
I always remember a lady serving who wore a lot of jingly bangles and was mesmerized by this. Lovely memories ...you only see this lovely setting now in the foodhalls of places like Harrods....fond memories...

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