The Shops of Burton

Author: Chris Bennett

This article will focus on the number and variety of shops that were trading in the village of Burton, and as we will see, there have been quite a variety, perhaps the norm in such rural areas, as the majority of local villagers didn’t have their own transport, or have access to any regular form of public transport. As you may expect during the c18th official records for buildings, families and occupations is somewhat limited in detail. It is also worth noting that in official census documents the village of Burton in most cases was actually listed as an entry for Nettleton. I also found out within some of the census records, Nettleton was listed under Gloucestershire!

You will also see the village had a series of Post Offices through time, moving from shop to shop. It’s unclear as to when the first post office appeared in Burton, however the service has been around for a very long time. Historically, in 1654, military and political leader Oliver Cromwell granted a monopoly to the Office of Postage over the postal delivery services in England. Three years later, fixed postal rates were launched. The General Post Office was established by Charles II in 1660, marking the official launch of the service in England. 1660 saw the establishment of the General Letter Office in the restored Kingdom of England, which would later become the General Post Office (GPO)
 
Maybe, Burton had a post office of sorts way back in the c17^th .

To bring us all back to more modern times, and based on available data and testimony, the shops we have information on are:

• Stores Cottage, The Street
• Post Office & Barbers shop, The Street (now part of Brookside Cottage)
• Bow Cottage, The Street
• The Post Office and shop at Marsh Lane (now Yew Tree Cottage)

Stores Cottage, The Street

The age of Stores Cottage is not known precisely, although the building next door (The Cottage) dates back to 1810. Therefore, based on this information we can deduce the age of this building.  The photograph below shows the stores next door to a garage and opposite the Old House at Home public house. Based on the scene of the photograph we could estimate the date to be sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s. As you may have noticed on the photograph, a sign ‘VIGZOL’ appears on the side of the shop above the garage, this is an advertisement for motor vehicle oils.

VIGZOL Oil Refining Company was established in London in 1919 and had a site in Ormskirk to manufacture motor oils, primarily for local garages or direct to the farming industry. The company/brand appears to have disappeared in the 1970’s, as tractor dealer plates from the late 1960’s had the brand on them.

From information provided from Census records and by the Packer family (still resident in the village) we have established that in 1911 the shop was also a Post Office, the post mistress being Mrs. Annie Packer, wife of Reginald and the grandmother of our present generation. At some stage their son Cecil (known as Jim) Packer purchased and owned the garage next door. You will hear more about Jim Packer in a future edition of this newsletter.

As well as being a general stores and garage there was also a small business (run from a wooden shed type structure) which serviced and repaired pedal cycles.

Also shown in the photograph is a man standing next to a motorcycle with sidecar, it is believed the man is Reg Packer, who was well known for riding around on the machine.

After the Packer family owning the stores, it was run by a Mr English, who is believed to have lived/resided at The Codrington Arms, Nettleton (this has closed and now a residential property). Apparently, Mr English was a keen photographer, taking photographs around the village and had a dark room above the shop for developing photographic film.

The shop was eventually sold to a Mr Viney (1950’s) and later sold on to a Mrs Hughes.

In July 2000 the shop was closed and the house was purchased by the Warburton family (owners of the Old House at Home pub) and developed to become a residential property for the family, very handy for getting to/from work.

Clearly the garage has also gone through change and is still trading today under the name of Nettleton Engineering, this will feature in a later edition of the Bugle.

Post Office? & Barbers shop, The Street (now Brookside Cottage)

The below photograph shows a row of five cottages with the shop/post office attached to one end. The buildings date back to approx. 1836. The five cottages in more recent times were subsequently merged to form three separate extended homes, known now as Hunters Cottage, Meadow View and Brookside Cottage.

Information from a number of current village residents indicate in in the 1930’s this was a Barbers, apparently the barber a Mr Charlie Sellman (although not thought to be related to Sellman’s at Marsh Lane PO) was part time, providing haircuts after work and at weekends. His main job was working on the railway. Although the photograph is captioned ‘Burton Post Office’ but even though there is no supporting testimony from our community, however we probably shouldn’t discount a possibility this was also a Post Office at sometime.

Post Office, The Street, Burton

The photograph, above, also highlights the condition of the road and lack of any pavement for pedestrians. How different times are now with the volume of motor vehicles passing by throughout the day.

Sweet shop/Greengrocers? (Now Bow Cottage, The Street)

Unfortunately, we have very little information regarding this premises, however what we do know is in the 1930’s the shop was run by the Scott-Ash family. One of the family was a nurse, and possibly worked in Bath. A number of residents seem to recall this was a small traditional styled sweet shop.

Sometime after the war (late 1940’s-50’s) the shop was taken over by a Maurice & Stella Cleverley who began to sell fruit and vegetables. It is believed the majority of his business was actually conducted using a lorry/van taking the produce out to the surrounding villages, a sort of mobile market. At about this time a relative Arthur Cleverley was the landlord of the Plume of Feathers public house.
The shop was later taken over by a Mrs Sanderson.

Post Office, Marsh Lane (now Yew Tree Cottage)

Information from residents indicate this building was the more recent property to have a post office and may have been opened when Stores Cottage ceased trading as a post office.

The PO/shop was run by a Mrs Sellman and her daughter Mrs. Jinks, unfortunately the family were involved in allegations of fraud and theft and closed the business. This may have been linked to the nationwide scandal between 1999 and 2015, when hundreds of Post Office staff were sacked, bankrupted or wrongly convicted after cash appeared to vanish from their tills. It was later ruled the shortfalls in the accounts of branches were the result of flaws in the Post Office’s IT system, called Horizon. This has subsequently been the subject of a Court Appeals process and convictions being quashed.

Yew Tree Cottage remains connected to the Post Office as the post collection box remains embedded into the wall of the house and in use by residents today.

Note – Pear Tree House

In addition to the history of having several Post Offices trading around the village, we also have a recollection from one of our more ‘mature’ residents to say that in the very early 1900’s he recalls his father was a friend of a postman called Charlie Blake living at this house. On his visits to the house as a very young boy, he recalls seeing a list inside the house porch, providing details on postal services. Could this have been the precursor form of Post Office available in Burton during the c20th before Stores Cottage?

Acknowledgements

A very big you to all who have contributed information and photographs to help put the jigsaw pieces together.

This blog was published previously as an article in The Bugle, as part of its Historical Burton series, and was written by Chris Bennett.