This page was first created in 2002 and then was updated in
2009. Some of the commentary touches on changes between 1977 when
an American friend went home and 2002/2009 and some on changes between
2002 and 2009.
 
The Packhorse
pub
is no more. After being closed altogether for a while in 2008,
and with an uncertain future, the building has reopened as a Wildwood
restaurant and bar. The interior has not been changed much in
this latest re-incarnation but is radically different from the pub of
1977. The building on
the left is a new office block built on part of the Packhorse's car
park.
 
The window on the left is part of
the
Wildwood restaurant but was used for a long time as a charity shop.
Chiltern Florist is pretty much
unchanged.
An Indian restaurant has occupied the next site for several years,
albeit
with at least one name change, but before that it was a branch of
Tesco.
Neville Johnson selling bespoke furniture has replaced the longstanding
ladies hairdressing establishment. You can see the 2002
picture here.

This group of shops with a central
entrance houses a butcher, a delicatessen and a bakery with a cafe.
On
the left, Richardson's has been in the village for some
years
but moved from the unit next door when this complex was created. The
middle bit has had a number of identities, including a wine shop, a
branch of David Shuttle and presently an Italian style
delicatessen. Jung's, the
baker, is to the right. Richardson's
unit was a branch of the Southern Electricity Board, and then a
greengrocer.
The middle unit was a paint and wallpaper shop for a while.
Jung's
unit has been many things including a party shop, but 30 years ago, it
was a branch of Brendon's selling televisions and radios.

Another change since 2002 is the
arrival
of this Interiors shop, with TVF Audio Visual upstairs. The
building was a Woolworths and then
a leather furniture shop. Davies jeweller is unchanged. Dry
cleaning
has been the trade of the next shop throughout this period, although it
used to be Achille Serre. The pied wagtails that used the trees
seen in 2002 as their roost have lost
their home but people find the
seats somewhat cleaner.

Travel Time is a recent arrival,
this
site having been many things through the years. Trades that come
to mind are newsagent (NSS), antiques (Aristocat) and carpets.
Somewhere
between 1969 and 1977 Fishers expanded from one unit to the three it
occupies
now. The unit on the left was a fruiterer and florist, the middle
one was Fishers and the righthand one was Botts the fishmonger who may
have moved across the road in this period.

Clark's shoe shop has been replaced
by a
Auberge du Chocolat.
Dorosu, Bo-Peep in 2002, lady's lingerie, was Rayner's the chemist, a
delightful if
somewhat
old-fashioned establishment. Across Bulstrode Way is Lloyds TSB,
renamed from plain Lloyds Bank. The 2002 picture is here.

How it was in 2002

Big changes here since 2002. Graham's dressed gentlemen for many
years but
was replaced by Oxfam after the Graham family retired from their
business.
Lunn Poly travel agent, or Holiday Shop as they style themselves, has
had a name change to Thomson. Back in 1977 the site was a
laundromat.
Aldridge, the greengrocer, has been replaced by a betting shop.
Unwin's was the last in a line of
Off
Licences, and the shop has become Krembo but earlier the unit was a
baker's and
then a jeweller.

NSS ran this large unit as a
newsagent
until Forbuoys came along. Martin's is just another name for
Forbouys so not much change there. Before that, it was Budgen's
Supermarket,
which moved to a new building in Station Road but by 2009 is no longer
represented in GX. The lady's
hairdresser
with the black canopy has been in that business all this time,
presently under the Brox banner.

Trudels used to sell china and
glassware,
then Lyttons sold fuirnishing fabrics and now Country Casuals offer
ladiy's clothing. For a shortish period in the 1980's it was
an
art shop. The Jade Room occupied the premises now run as The Good
Life Chinese restaurant, and the white fronted shop was The
Weathervane
before it became Patricia International Fashions.
.

After crossing the railway bridge
we
have Station Approach on the left. Only a small change to the
shop front has occured since 2002.

W H Smith and Sketchley Cleaners
have
been here all these years, although the snazzy fronts are recent in
both
cases. Veritas, kitchen design and fitting, is now closed but
there are signs that another kitchen design company intends to start up
(January 2010). Grahame Peck
occupied
that unit until the business moved a few doors along in the
mid-1970's.

A brief digression to the cinema in
Ethorpe
Crescent, showing movies through all this period, but under a number of
different banners. On the right, what was Midland Bank is now
known
officially as HSBC.

Boots the Chemist expanded into the
unit
next to the bank a few years ago. Before that, it was an Off Licence,
latterly
Victoria Wine. Not showing too well in the picture is Blue Dragon
dry cleaners and launderers which has been there since before
1977.
This unit and the next two were previously used by Waitrose and then by
Oakshotts.

This is where Grahame Peck moved
to,
but the men's outfitting business has now gone to be replaced by a
branch of Costa.
Abbey
National has been here for all these years, although it has had a few
makeovers. Oakshotts, grocers, was here in the 1970s. Next
to Abbey National, the
ladies
have been able to have their hair done for probably twenty years, but
before
that Franks sold fruit and veg - and ice cream - we bought his big
chest
freezer when he ceased to sell ice cream!

These two units were International
Stores,
a small supermarket chain - what a choice for food shopping we had
then!
By 1990, the first one was a travel agent, although under a different
name,
and then Lights and Shades retailer of - well, lights and shades!
Lights and Shades changed to Lighting Matters and absorbed the travel
agent's space. The corner shop, now an estate agent, was the
National Provincial Bank,
followed by Bramfield and Northcote selling antiques and collectables -
the closure of the bank was in the mid-1970's.

And finally, on the west side of
Packhorse
Road, we come to the Ethorpe Hotel. More or less unchanged from a
long time before the period we are looking at, it has had several
changes
of image.
I do hope you found the tour informative. Would you like
to
look
at the east side now?
You just might want to go back to the
introductory page!
Photos © Guy Gorton
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