At one time there were as many as six shops in Barton Turf, but now there are none.
A good account of the different shops in the village is contained in John Yaxley’s A Jam Round Barton Turf from which the following extracts are taken.
Pennygate
Branching off to the left and soon on our right is a long brick and tiled building which was a cartshed and stables, etc belonging to the nearby cottage. Here was one of the six village shops that have been in Barton during the 20th
century, owned by a Mr Harry Watts, then his son, also Harry. The shop was in the north-west corner of their house. Reports have it that smuggled goods have been known here too.
A Victorian wallmounted letter box can be seen nearby. Both Watts were village carpenters and their workshop has only recently, mid-1990s, been demolished, to be replaced by a new dwelling on our right. And as we look up the short unmetalled road where the further semi-detached cottage was occupied by a ‘Libby’ Balls, who ran a small shop from here after the Watts’ was closed.
Near the Chapel
Of the two cottages end to the road, the nearest was another village shop, last owned by a Loveday. Closed in the late 1920s, the glass front with its red and diamond windows, where one stepped down almost straight off the road, was still in place in the ’30s. The further end was occupied by a fish curer and seller.
The Street
The premises next to the phone box, with the large windows, was for many years the main shop and post office in the village, and the last one in use. Note the aforementioned ‘Providence Place’ plaque just under the eaves at the front. The Post Office licence was lost in the ’70s, and the post box itself re-erected on a ‘pusst’ nearby in 2004. The shop was closed in December 2001, a loss to both villagers and holidaymakers off the Broads.
Next on the right was yet another small shop in two wooden huts supplying sweets, etc., haberdashery and some drapery. Owned by Mr ‘Pedlar’ Wilson, who as the name suggests, sold many of his goods from a suitcase on his bicycle. Widely known and respected in the countryside, he was a keen cyclist and travelled many miles outside Norfolk.
At the junction and on our right is ‘Point House’ which at the beginning of the 20th century was a grocer’s and pork butcher’s shop where blood has been seen running down the road when a pig had been slaughtered. Mention has been made of six shops in the village during the 20th century. This is the site of the last one we shall see. Here can be seen, in the brickwork in the west wall, where the post box was positioned before being moved to the shop at Providence Place, around 1920.
Details of the shop keepers at different times can be seen from an analysis of Barton Turf businesses and the people running them from 1836 to 1937, which has been compiled using information in trade directories. This can be downloaded as a PDF document. The data has been compressed into a single page to aid viewing and is best viewed at about 400%.
Personal recollections of the Barton Turf shops and their keepers can be found in Anne Wilson’s Wherries and Windmills.
A photograph of the Providence Place shop can be seen on the Welcome Gallery page.
