The Village Shop

A Memory of Hurst Green.

I remember in the 1950s, walking as a child from Greenhurst Lane where I lived, across the railway bridge, down to St Agatha's Hall, then left down the long path to the bottom of the large Village Green. At the bottom on the left was the shop run by Mr Biggs. I liked going there as I was fascinated by what I called the "bacon machine" (a bacon slicer). I was always happy to pop down if my mother wanted a few things from the shop as the slicer might be in use.

Sometimes my mother would have groceries delivered from the shop, they were always brought by a "Mr Wood". By the time I was a teenager, Mr Biggs had retired and the shop had become an off-license. Opposite the shop was Comforts Farm on the other side of the road. This was built on while I was still quite young, but before that happened I liked to see the pigs in the field snorting and grunting.

James Hammond