It has prompted so many memories and reminiscences that I have decided to use this first blog of the day to feature some of the comments received to date. There is also a batch of new photographs to further prompt other memories.
Here are some of the comments received:
"I remember the shop next to the old post office being called a bike shop. Not sure it if was or not."
"I remember it being covered in green painted corrugated iron. My grandad told me it was a bike shop but I don’t remember that."
"I remember my grandparents (The Keeleys) letting me stick the stamps on when I was a little girl."
"Tasty bites was once a fantastic bakery."
"The post office when we moved here in 1964 was in the store opposite the PACT charity shop ran by Mr and Mrs Childs."
"Lovely memories I remember the bakery was once owned by Mr Wiles and his son Roy used to deliver bread and then Anita Phoenix took it over and also did deliveries."
"Where Dawson’s Law is before the flower shop it was a wool shop. In the square there was a fruit and veg shop for a while ran by Craig."
"During 1959 I was stationed at RAF Barnham (near Thetford on the Bury St Edmund’s Road) and travelled daily from Norwich. At that time the A11 ran past The Queen’s Head and Harvey’s Garage, where I would fill up. Didn’t think I would ever live in Hethersett, but have been happy here for 32 years, and seen many changes, some good and some bad."
"Pretty sure that dilapidated building was a bike shop many moons ago, think there was saddlery and the like on Queen's Road, opposite where Albert Ringer lived too!"
"When I first moved here there was an amazing coffee shop, Grinders, on Henstead Road where the charity shop is now. They had all different kinds of coffee beans which they would grind for you, and a few tables and chairs. Sadly it closed soon after!"
"In the 1990s my mum went to a sewing club held in a portacabin type shop (wool/haberdashery) in the square behind what is now a hairdressers. The lady who ran it then moved to the shop on corner of Henstead Rd (now charity shop), then when it closed the club met each week at Woodcote."
Finally former postmaster Phil Emery answered numerous queries in a Facebook post:
"The dilapidated building beside the old post office was originally a bicycle shop, owned by a Mr Childs, whose family home was behind what was number 3 Gt Melton Road. When my in-laws took over the shop, the building was then used as the sorting office. When the Post Office moved into Oak Square, the sorting office moved to a portacabin behind the hairdressers/greengrocers. When that land was bought for development, we moved the sorting office to a unit at Harvey's Garage."
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I thought it would also be good to ask people to name some residents they can remember from the past with just a sentence or two on each. That will enable me to build a database of who lived in Hethersett in days gone by and what people remember about them.
Today I would like to feature Barclays Bank, Woodbine's fish and chip shop and Harvey's Garage. I was asked for a photograph of Barclays Bank which closed in 2000 and just happened to have one in the collection I dusted off from the garage.
The bank was just one of the financial institutions in the village. The Halifax Building Society was situated in what is now Rowan House and there was a financial advice shop, latterly Edward Jones in what is now Stratton's Estate Agents in Great Melton Road. It seems ironic that as the village grew, facilities such as the banks were withdrawn.
At the top of the page are images of Harvey's Garage - the first taken by Trevor Radley and the second by myself. Harvey's Garage is now blocks of flats. Hethersett used to be home to two petrol stations - Harveys and one on the B1172 opposite Park Farm. Trevor points out that his wife and two daughters are in his shot. My photograph is taken from a different angle.
Immediately below are two photographs from Trevor Radley's collection which show the old National School and I find these fascinating. It is the first time I have seen a picture of the first ever school in Hethersett.
Hethersett's National School was built in 1817. The British School in Henstead Road (now the Church Hall) followed between 1850 and 1854. The new National School (now Hethersett Church of England VC Primary School) was built between 1860 and 1861 to replace the original building which is now a bungalow and which has a commemorative plaque in the garden. School attendance didn't become compulsory until 1880.