Great Glen Co-op

This photograph of the Co-op shows Frances (or Madge) Griffiths, who used to work there. She was about 19 years of age at the time the photograph was taken. The shop was then situated next door to the current shop, in what are now 1, 2 and 3a Whatton Cottages. The house to the right of the shop is still there and is next to the current Co-op. Behind the lamp there was a shutter which was the store-room for the shop. Upstairs was a haberdashery shop, which was accessed through a door to the left of the shutter (not shown) and then via a flight of stairs. It could not be accessed from the shop. Sheila Gibson (the editor’s husband’s aunt) used to work there. Where the Co-op is now were some terraced houses.

After the Co-op moved to the current premises the haberdashery moved to the downstairs of the old Co-op.

Stuart Gibson can remember taking out deliveries around the village from the current shop in the late 1960s. He rode a bike like the one in “Open all hours” with a big basket on the front. Stuart’s two brothers Mike and Trevor did this job and before them it was Fraser Gilbert. Stuart recalls that Kelvin Herbert, one of his class mates, took over the job from him.