Willoughby Road

Willoughby Road, a mixture of old and new properties, pictured here from the eastern or fen end of the street.

The corner shop has been an essential part of urban life for centuries, providing a valuable amenity for families living in the vicinity, always ready to serve their customers by stocking those essentials necessary for daily living, a reliable and personal service that was rapidly eroded by the arrival of the supermarkets with their cut prices and quick turnovers. The small shopkeepers never had a chance against such competition and they closed one by one and today, few survive in their original form.

Not all of these small businesses actually stood on a corner but were nevertheless alike in all other respects for it was here that the housewife could buy a bag of sugar or a half pound of butter and exchange the gossip of the day. The life attracted Mrs Elizabeth Arnold when she opened her small shop at No 46 Willoughby Road, Bourne, in 1897 and it continued in business for more than a century and now, although closed, the building remains as a perfect example of the old red brick properties on the eastern side of the town.

Mrs Elizabeth Arnold standing at the door of the grocery shop she opened in 1897 (left) with her son John Robert in front of the window and (right) the shop as it was in April 2001. Sepia photo: Courtesy Walter Blades

By 1922, Mrs Arnold had been joined by her son John Robert to help run the shop and he took over when his mother died. In 1956, Walter Blades, aged 20, joined the business as an assistant, having served his two years' National Service in the Army Catering Corps. "I had worked in the grocery trade at Stamford and Market Deeping before going into the army", said Walter, "and when I was demobbed, I was introduced to Mr Arnold and he gave me a job working in the shop. I got married and when the house attached to the shop became vacant, we moved in. I had been here four years when he retired and so I bought the stock from him and continued running the shop and it became our life's work."

John Robert died in 1965, leaving the shop to his widow Martha, and when she died in 1978 at the age of 92, she left the premises to Walter in her will and he and his wife Mavis continued with the business until March 2001 when they decided to retire. He had been behind the counter for 45 years.

There had been many changes during that time but Walter remembered those early days with some affection:

Sugar, tea, rice, dried fruits and even lard all came unpackaged. The lard would be cut off the block for a customer and then wrapped in greaseproof paper while the sugar and dried fruit was weighed out to order and then wrapped in blue paper. The wrapping was a real art, particularly with the rice. But over the years, all of the food has become pre-packed. Legislation has changed the entire retail grocery trade and the influence of the supermarkets is everywhere. Local people always did their shopping here until 20 or 30 years ago and many used to put their groceries on their tab or account that would then, hopefully, be settled at the end of the week when the husband brought home his wages. But people gradually changed their habits and began to shop at the supermarket or near where they worked and so we started to lose trade although we still had a lot of occasional customers popping in to buy the bits and pieces they had forgotten to get elsewhere. We kept a few regulars though, mostly older people who disliked change. Like us, they enjoyed that little bit of gossip, talking to someone while they were buying their groceries for the week.

Photo: Courtesy The Local newspaper, Bourne Walter Blades and his wife Mavis behind the counter of the grocery shop E Arnold & Son that closed for business in 2001 after a century of trading.

The shop finally closed on Saturday 31st March 2001, an eventual victim of changes in retail trading, mounting paperwork, rules and regulations, and the property was sold to enable Walter and Mavis buy a new home for their retirement. "I finished the last of my deliveries during the final week and many customers said they were so sad we were packing up", said Walter. "But it was inevitable. Small convenience stores such as ours had just about had their day and we had to accept it. But it proved to be just right for us because I had reached the retirement age of 65 and so we thought that this was a suitable time to shut up shop."

See also     John Arnold     Willoughby Road in Past Times