Memories of the Shops in Meldreth
In my young days there was a grocery store, a general store, which was Liddiards and there were two bakehouses – they used to bake the bread there – Adcocks and Warrens. In addition to baking the bread Warrens also ran a pork shop. They had a big shed where they used to scald the pigs and scrape them and at the back end of the butcher’s shop he had this pork shop, he didn’t sell any other meat, just pork.
Liddiards sold everything you could think of. You could go and get two pennyworth of nails or you could get a gallon of paraffin or a pound of butter, all over the same counter! They used to come round with a trade bike and take orders and then bring the goods to you. It was a lot different than going to Tesco’s! The bicycle with a square frame at the front and you could stand a few boxes of stuff in it but not a lot. After Liddiards finished with it, it was taken over by Leveringtons and they ran it until it caught fire in 1954. Enid lost all her twenty first birthday presents in the fire. Then they moved over to where the bakehouse was, where the shop is now. That was Warren’s bakehouse.
Adcock’s bakehouse was the one opposite the alley which they have now put an extension on the end of. On our way to school we used to call in and pinch a bread roll and go to school eating a hot bread roll. Adcocks used to come round with a sort of pony and trap thing to take the bread round and I remember one, not the main baker but his brother I think, he used to have a great big wicker basket on his arm and he used to walk from there down the alley and take bread up Kneesworth Road.
Do you have any memories of the shops in Meldreth? If so please add a comment below.
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Our family moved to Meldreth from Royston in 1964. I recall that the main shop was “Allen’s” in the High St run by Mrs Allen and her son. Being close to the ‘Rec’ it was convenient for buying bottles of Corona pop, Walls ice cream wafers, Anglo bubblegum, Smiths crisps etc. Next door was the “Wool Shop” [The Bee ‘Ive] which aside from knitting supplies, also sold toys. Across the road was the wonderful old “Post Office” and sweet shop where each morning before setting off for school in Melbourn, a group of us with our bikes would stock up with black jacks, fruit salads, sherbet dips and the like. Another Grocers was “Warrens” in Whitecroft Road – they used to deliver our groceries once a week which was convenient as the nearest ‘supermarket’ in those days was the Co-Op in Royston.
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