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Shops and Post Office

Post Office Little Lane, 1899
Post Office Little Lane, 1899
Tilly Godfrey's; Post Office and Shop. Adverts for Lyons Tea, Colman's Mustard. Note the Telephone Box [OCL]
Tilly Godfrey’s; Post Office and Shop. Adverts for Lyons Tea, Colman’s Mustard. Note the Telephone Box [OCL]
Brook Cottage (No 14) Post Office
Brook Cottage (No 14) Post Office

Matilda (‘Tilly’) Godfrey’s shop was in a cottage [Amberley Cottage] adjoining Fred Wheeler’s house [Timings?]. This was the village Post Office (9am – 1pm and 4pm – 5pm ) with a small shop and the first telephone kiosk was in the garden against the wall.

Mrs Roberts’ shop was firstly in the thatched cottage opposite (across Little/Chapel Lane) with the room and the window facing The Green as the shop and then she moved with the shop to the cottage opposite the Methodist Chapel (now village hall).

Mr and Mrs Charlie Browning moved from No 32 New Road to the cottage by the Ock. Shortly after the move Mrs Laura Browning started to sell sweets and tobacco and a few years later when, Tilly Godfrey died, she took over the post office and evacuees stayed there during the second World War.

[Principal Source: The Length of the Road Maud Ody P 23, 27, 86]

From Memories of Michael Cox: Now next to [Byways] by the River Ock was the Post Office that sold everything, owned by Mr & Mrs Browning and their son Charlie, where we used to go for our sweets and fishing rods which was a 6ft cane and a simple reel, line and hooks, and in those days we brought all the shopping from there.

Postcard of 14 Charney  (Brook Cottage) as the PO and Stores. No date, but this card was sent from Charney to London on 25/08/1930
Postcard of 14 Charney (Brook Cottage) as the PO and Stores. No date, but this card was sent from Charney to London on 25/08/1930

John Luker ran the garage on the corner of Main Street and Lyford Road and later added to it a village shop and a Post Office.