Shops

Local man Joseph Wilkes (1732-1805) made double sized bricks in an attempt to beat the brick tax of 1788, and the results can be seen in several buildings in Measham. In this picture you can see the 'jumbo' bricks, and the normal size bricks top right.

Interviewer: What did you think of Measham when you first came here, did you know it?

Mrs Williams: No, I was a total stranger, and it was a lovely friendly little village. Because you see it’s grown up a lot, this last 20 odd years. But at that time the village was full of little shops. Harry Ensor had the butcher’s shop, and he’d look up, ‘Good morning Joan, what can I serve you?’ It took you hours to go shopping because you knew everybody. There’s a shop at Measham called Jerrom’s and the little place next to it was an old picture place. I remember my sons and I going there to the pictures. It’s now a youth club, and when it ceased to be a picture place my eldest son, along with a lot more youngsters, and we’d got youth club leaders by then, they worked on the picture place to convert it into a youth club, and from there they used to go on pony trekking and canoeing weekends. But I remember all the village shops were all ever so busy. You could get your shoes repaired in Measham. He almost put himself out of business because he was such a good cobbler the shoes used to, you know, if he repaired them then they were repaired.

Interviewer: Who was that?

Mrs Williams: That was Ray Townsend that did the repairs. He’s got a shop just the other side of John Jerrom’s shop, it’s not a shop now. Then there was another shoe repair shop up Leicester Road, Mr Ratcliffe, he was very good as well. The top of Measham we had a Co-op and another big store, and we had a baker’s, two butcher’s, and we had an electric shop. I had my first washing machine off Bert Berners [?] little tiny Hoover that big, thought I was a queen the day it…

Interviewer: What was that like?

Mrs Williams: Oh, about that big, it was an electric one, just put the washing in, switched it on the mains and it churned all my lovely washing up.

Interviewer: Did it wash well, did it spin?

Mrs Williams: No, it wasn’t a spin drier it didn’t have a program on it like today. No, there was a wringer on it…

Interviewer: Was that electric?

Mrs Williams: No, it was hand.

©EMOHA