Granny Green's Shop.

A Memory of Hurstbourne Tarrant.

The building in the middle of this photo was the village shop. It was owned by my grandmother, Hilda Green. It seemed to me as a child to sell just about everything I could ever have needed in my life. Granny was also the parcels agent for the Wilts & Dorset Bus Company. Upstairs was a room that we called the 'Toy Bedroom', and spread out on the floor were loads of very old toys, still in their dusty boxes. We were allowed on special occasions to select one from the pile.
Set back in between the shop and the cottage on the left of the photograph was a narrow tumbledown cottage. This served as the workshop for my grandfather, Maurice Green, who ran the local carpenters' shop, together with my father, Geoffrey Green.
Just inside the front door was the bike shed, where people could leave their steeds, when they took the bus to work.
Opposite was the Post Office with its two Esso petrol pumps and its repair workshop. In the early 1950s the building behind the ESSO sign was demolished by one of the several Tank Transporter crashes, when the vehicle ran away down the 1 in 7 hill. This is now a private house.
The left-hand cottage of the row on the left of the photograph, was lived in by my great uncle, George Green, who worked for Northants Builders, on the Newbury road, which was off to the right of the picture.
I lived with my mother, father and sister, up the Hill in number one, Rookery Cottages, opposite Rookery Farm, where I spent all my spare childhood time with my Uncle Reg, who was the farm manager, for the farmer Reginald Burder.