
I've been encouraged to write the following piece with just reason, regarding the plight of what was once a truly quintessentially British icon: the traditional corner shop.
And as Napoleon was to remark " we are a nation of shopkeepers."
Sadly, this is no longer found to be true.
I can fondly recollect from my days being 'knee high to grasshopper' as it were: we had a butcher (x 2,) a baker (sadly, no candlestick maker) a grocers, a newsagent, a fishmonger and a sweet shop and tobacconist combined (god forbid!) all within a hundred yard radius of our little terrace home. And how I was sent on many a daily 'errand' to one of these shops for my parents (with glee, of course! Or it was a swift backhander if I protested. ) And I recall 'Terry' from the sweet shop often reminding me, to keep my 'grubby' little mitts away from the sweet counter! Not because I dared to lift anything for nowt! It's just that my hands were grubby. This was how all young boys were then, with the added snotty nose, dirty face and grazed knees, the norm.
Our appearance often due to spending long hours out on the lush fields playing football, rugby, (league, of course!) cricket, building dens in the woods and making swings across the brook, those were the days, my friends (I'm sure that's the title of a song?)
I remember the little old dears (anyone above the age of six, looked old to me then!) in their pinnies and hair-nets or curlers who would be nattering away with the latest gossip about Mary down the road, and who would quickly revert to 'lip-reading' each other (a skill learnt from years in the noisy mills, just like the sketch Les Dawson and the chap from Coronation Street use to do) when someone entered the shop, like me.
Unfortunately, all that remains of my short trip down memory lane, is the newsagent and one butcher. But for how much longer?
Planning permission has been granted for a sight next to the butchers and newsagents to be turned into one of those drive- in 'mini' supermarkets, which will have a devastating effect on business for the these last two bastions of Britishness and tradition in my area.
The ease at which this planning application was approved is dubious to say the least. I know the shop owners in question were only informed of the application when it was deemed too late to object! And then, they were only told of this by a local resident from a good few streets away who had read the displayed proposal notice attached to the lamp-post. Why did the council planners not send out letters of the application to the shop-owners themselves?
We're not sure at this moment in time which of the 'giant' chains it will be, but, you can be damn correct in saying that I bet a few 'brown envelopes' have exchanged hands in the process with the snivelling little weasels from the council! And I wonder how much emphasise has our minister Rt Hon. MP Andy Burnham played ?
If nothing is done to safeguard these businesses, then I'm afraid these two premises will typically be leased out as some fast food outlet, just like the other twenty or so, Indian, Chinese, kebab, pizza, and other non-English fast food outlets that grace our once idyllic street!































