Page 25 - Jigsaw March 2020

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“When we were little, I was rather a nice- looking child and my brother was a real boy. He had a friend who was the same age and they used to say to me “come on, we’re going scrumping”. They gave me a penny to go into Mrs Boulter’s shop at the end
of Halford Street. This was a general store and I was instructed to ask for a ha’porth of aniseed balls and a ha’poth of floral gums. This was because one was at one end of the top shelf and the other at the other end. Mrs
Boulter had to use the steps to reach them which meant she was a long time serving me. Meanwhile my brother and his friend were in her garden collecting apples and pears.”
The 1936 edition of Leayton’s Thrapston Almanack and Directory, which also covered Oundle and local villages carried two advertisements for the business, shown above.
Twenty-three years later their advertisement in a 1959 issue of the Parish Magazine was much the same:
Before he died in 2008 some of his memories were recorded for posterity by Thrapston District Historical Society. Pictured above in 2005 (EDF) he is still remembered with fondness by those who knew him.
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