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1.  Introduction
In the 1950’s Cawston was quite a lively place.  The soldiers who had fought in the Second World War had long returned home and many women, some now housewives, had given up their full-time jobs on the land.  While these women, unaware of political correctness and equal opportunities, were at home with their new labour saving devices of the fifties, they had plenty of time to ponder in the house and think about their shopping.  I remember seeing many of them regularly shopping in the village, pushing their prams around Cawston, riding their bikes, standing at the bus stops or just chatting to each other.

Shops in Cawston in the 1950’s were small family-owned businesses and sold a much smaller variety of produce than we know today.  There were no frozen foods, yoghurt, pizzas, or plastic shopping bags.  Most people did not have cars so they did their shopping locally.  In many respects Cawston was self-sufficient, but for bigger purchases, like clothing and furniture, you went further afield to either Aylsham or Norwich.

2.  Market Place
The only grocery shop in the Market Place, which is often referred to as Market Hill, was owned by Dent.  It was situated on the ground floor in a rather small house at the top end of Chapel Street.  There always seemed to be customers in Dent’s shop buying the odds and ends that had not been delivered with their weekly groceries.  When you entered the shop the door often squeaked so it remained open for most of the day when the weather was fine.  In front of the shop you would often see a large ‘Walls’ ice cream sign standing on the pavement.  I remember that this shop had quite a good selection of beauty and hygiene products for the modern woman of the fifties when life was slowly improving.  For the men it was slightly different as the only fragrance seemed to be 'Life Buoy' or ‘Knight’s Castle’ toilet soap which I recall was advertised from time to time in several shop window in Cawston.

The coldest shop in Cawston was Tuddenham’s butchers shop that was situated at the top of the Market Place overlooking Chapel Street.  During opening hours there were always joints of pork, beef and lamb displayed in the front window and behind the glass counter there were sausages, chops, cutlets etc.  It was a very sterile shop and sawdust was often scattered on the floor.  At the back of the shop there was a large door which led into the cold storage room.  As a child I always wanted to look into this room but the constant cold stream of air stopped me from asking.  I remember that Mr. Tuddenham and his assistant often gave me a free sausage with the weekend ‘joint’ (in those days ‘joint’ only meant meat).  This was, however, no compensation for the typical question people often asked: “Why does the butcher weigh and charge for the bones that he cuts off the meat?”.  Despite this, Tuddenham’s was very friendly business and sold high quality produce.

Overton’s shop situated directly next to Tuddenham’s specialised in sweets and tobacco products.  It is really remarkable how this shop survived for so many years with nearly all the other shops in Cawston also selling sweets and tobacco products.  In modern day terms this could be described as an old fashioned village sweet shop.  Overton’s shop nearly always had a large sign in the door advertising ‘Fry's Chocolate’.  Most of us had pocket money, albeit little, and we bought our sweets here before going to school.  The so-called “threp’ny joe” (three pennies in the old currency) bought us a lucky bag which was one of our favourites, and contained a few sweets, a sherbet dip and a plastic toy.  Our favourite sweets were sherbet lemons, pear drops, aniseed balls, dolly mixtures, Catherine wheels, barley sugar sweets, liquorice, spearmint chews as well as the notorious gobstoppers.  When we bought 4oz. of sweets they were carefully put into a small white bag perforated at the top, then twisted tightly at the top corners.  At Easter time Overton’s shop window was filled with chocolate eggs in all price categories, and at Christmas time with stockings filled with bars of chocolate.

A shop specialising in bicycle repairs, in particular the repair of punctures, was situated next to Overton’s sweet shop.  It also sold new and second-hand bicycles, so it soon became the most exciting shop in the village for the children, who always dreamed of owning a new bike.  This small shop had two small display windows which were always full of bicycle repair items, tyres and tools.  The shop was so full of bicycles and spare parts that only the owner could possibly find what he was looking for.  There were two petrol pumps standing directly in front of this shop.  I remember one year on 31 March after the government had announced a significant increase in petrol tax that there was an unusually long queue of cars and motor bikes at the pumps waiting to buy petrol since the tax increase took effect at midnight on 1 April. 

The three shops at the top of the Market Place were a favourite midday meeting place for the farm labourers who worked on the land in and around the village.  The men would stand in front of the shops every day at noon smoking their cigarettes or pipes and talking to each other.  On Fridays you would see them go to Mrs. Stackwood’s fish and chip shop and then back to the Market Place for a talk and smoke.

On the opposite side of the Market Place at the top of High Street was the King’s Head public house which allowed the villagers to use their bicycle shed as well as the outside ladies and gents conveniences.  This public house, together with the others in Cawston in the 1950’s (Bell, Lamb, Ratcatchers, Plough and Friendship - the latter two closed during the 1950’s) provide men with their main leisure pursuit even with the strict licensing laws.
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3.  High Street
In towns, post offices were purpose built and generally quite large establishments.  In villages like Cawston, the post office was a dedicated establishment occupying shop premises in the High Street.  At the beginning of the 1950’s it was located in Mr. Chapman’s general store in the High Street, just down the road from the King’s Head pub.  In terms of space and the number of employees this was the biggest shop in Cawston.  This shop sold not only groceries but also general ‘hardware’ which in those days had nothing to do with PC’s (and ‘software’ was not a word fifty years ago!).  It also had a wide selection of stationery.  As you entered the shop door from the High Street the post office and stationery section was on the left hand side and the grocery shop on the right.  I remember that we always bought the multi-vitamin drink called halbiorange as well as milk of magnesia here, probably because it was frequently advertised in the shop window.

Like everywhere else in the 1950’s the money in this shop was kept in the till which was a simple locked drawer with a bell on it that rang when the drawer was opened.  The shopkeeper noted down on paper the total value of the goods and then added them up with the aid of pencil and paper.  As far as I recall the post office store was the first shop in Cawston to get a so-called electro-mechanical till.  This till would add up the prices entered and display the result in the small screen at the top.  The till also recorded a running total of the prices entered and displaying this in a small window. 

The post office was one of the most important shops in Cawston in the 1950’s as it was the only place where the pensioners, mostly dressed in ‘macs’ (an oversized raincoat and nothing to do with McDonald’s ‘big macs’), that were fashionable in the fifties, could collect their pensions.  It also had other vital functions: you could obtain licences for your dog, radio or television, as well forms, e.g to apply for a passport.  No wonder that there were always bicycles standing outside. 

Further down the High Street on the other side of the road (facing St. Agnes’ Church) was Mrs. Stackwood’s fish and chip shop; a favourite place for young and old to hang around in the evenings.  This shop with a café seating about 20 people also sold chocolates, sweets, a few papers and magazine and on Saturday evenings the “Pink-’Un”, the sports newspaper that was dedicated to Norwich City FC and other clubs in the region and cover results, statistics and reviews.  Reading matter was rather limited in the fifties and generally speaking came in two types: the practical and the rest.  One of the most popular weekly magazine was call 'Tit Bits'.  The women in those days were literally bombarded with new household ideas in magazines. 

Mrs. Stackwood’s fish and chip shop had no tiles or stainless steel surfaces as are required today.  This was a fish and chip shop in the true British sense.  The fish (either cod or plaice) and chips were cooked in lard and eaten with salt and lashings of vinegar.  Mrs. Stackwood’s bags of chips were often so full that you could not eat them all.  In those days fish and chips were wrapped in greaseproof paper and then in old newspapers to keep them warm.  The print from the newspaper always came off on your hands - so you often ate your chips with black fingers.

Mrs Stackwood rented a room of her premises to Freddie Barwick in the 1950’s which he used as a part time gent’s barbers shop.  Freddie came to Cawston weekly from his father’s hairdressing business in Aylsham with his mobile hairdressing kit which he quickly set up in this room.  He was my uncle and I recall going there regularly.  There were always lots of men waiting for a haircut.  They talked non-stop about everything from local issues to world events.  I often got the impression that his shop was a social meeting place as the men would sit there for hours even after having their hair cut.  As a child I was always asked if I liked school. 

Next to the Bell Inn in the High Street was a room in a house which was used in the 1950’s for bank services provided by a bank in Reepham on a weekly basis.  In a room in the same building the dispensary at the Aylsham doctors surgery deposited tablets and medicine that had been prescribed to the villagers of Cawston.  They were placed on the window sill and could be collected during daylight hours.  Also, next to the Bell Inn was a yard leading to some storage rooms containing crates of fresh milk that was delivered daily in the vicinity.
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4.  Chapel Street
Mr. Riley’s grocery shop was situated opposite to the Westleyan Reform Chapel in Chapel Street.  My most vivid memory of this shop was the cheese that Mr. Riley cut by using a wire, never a knife.  Dressed in a long white apron he would weigh and individually wrap the cheese in greaseproof paper on which he scribbled the price.  The cheese was supplied to the shop in very large pieces, too large to cut using a knife and so they were cut into portions by simply drawing a wire through them. 

Riley’s large shop display windows usually displayed one product only.  They advertised products that were used everyday e.g. oxo, that people drank as a beverage, as well as camp coffee which was a thick blend of coffee mixed with chicory and sugar popular after the Second World War.  The products advertised in the shop window did not change very often as each family seemed to have a standard weekly shopping list and were not influenced by advertisements as they are today.  I remember on one occasion when the window did change dramatically and that a washing powder company (Persil, Omo or Daz - I just cannot remember which one) decided to offer a free plastic daffodil with each packet of washing powder to help promote sales.  Needless to say, almost every third front room window sill in the village were thenceforth decorated with ‘hardy’ yellow daffodils.

Riley’s had a good selection of all foodstuffs as well as fruit and vegetables.  I remember first seeing oranges in Riley’s shop that arrived in large wooden crates with tissue paper wrapped around them for protection.  The selection of fruit and vegetables in the 1950’s was much smaller than it is today as almost everyone in Cawston had a vegetable garden where they grew their produce.  Some vegetables like carrots, turnip and parsnips could stay in the ground until the first frost which did not normally occur until December.   

At the back of the shop was Mrs. Riley’s backroom.  The room was very small and was probably a small sitting room or child’s bedroom in earlier times.  It was full from top to bottom with children’s clothes and all sorts of gifts such as imitation jewellery, children’s books and annuals, toys etc.  I remember that she also sold marbles, a boys game with rules you seemed to make up as you played.  It was often more fun to collect and swop marbles than to play the game.  This shop was an ideal place to buy presents if you could not make it to Aylsham or Norwich.  Children at Cawston just loved looking around in her room with their parents and inevitably came out with a present.   

A few houses further on the same side of the road along Chapel Street towards Sygate was Dewings the bakery until sometime in the late 1950’s.  I would often buy our fresh loaf of bread at his shop on my way back home from school.  Mr. Dewing was a delightful old man who had a heart for children as each child who bought a loaf of bread in his shop was given a miniature loaf to eat on the way home.  It was always a treat to eat a tiny loaf of hot bread that had came straight from the oven.
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5.  New Street
I will always remember the one semi-detached house in New Street that had no windows on the side that faced the road.  Almost directly opposite to this house was a retail grocery shop, also owned by Dent who also had a shop on the Market Place.  This shop offered a home delivery service at weekends.  Many families would either have a standard weekly list or provide this shop with a list of items they required each week.  The shop also had a Christmas club.  Together with the weekly order customers would buy a Christmas club stamp which was put on a card and the total amount used to pay for the Christmas groceries.  At Christmas time this shop always had lots of biscuit in large tins, some of which were displayed tilted forward and with their lids removed to display their contents of Huntley and Palmer, Crawfords or Jacobs plain and chocolate biscuits. 

We had our weekly order at this shop which included almost everything apart from meat which we bought at Tuddenham’s and vegetables which mainly came from the garden.  The basic ingredients for our belly-filling meals were delivered once a week.  I remember the weekly macaroni cheese and desserts such as rice pudding, semolina, tapioca or jam sponge and custard.  The diet in the fifties was high in fat as the potatoes were roasted in saturated fat rather than today's healthier alternatives like unsaturated vegetable oil.  After commercial TV was launched many of us who regularly watched TV started to become influenced by the advertising jingles and slogans (‘Snap, crackle and pop’, ‘Go to work on an egg’) and then our tastes changed and so did the weekly shopping list as well as the selection of products in the shops in Cawston.

I remember that this shop always had a wide collection of funny shaped brushes which were common in almost every household in the 1950’s as well as coal scuttles which almost every home needed.  Like all the other shops in Cawston, Woodbines, Weights and Players Navy Cut, all types of cigarettes, were sold here too as cigarette smoking was considered to be fashionable in those days.  This was also a favourite shop for children to take back lemonade bottles and get 3d (three pence - old currency) back in order to buy a few sweets.
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6.  Norwich Road
Whenever I cycled past Hutton’s the butchers, along the Norwich Road situated next to Smith’s garage, I could not help looking at the long pieces of meat, skinned slaughtered animals, that hung in the shop window.  The shop window display always looked the same and resembled a still life picture that you see today at a Guggenheim art gallery.  We never bought our meat here and I never recall entering this shop; it always seemed to be quiet inside but probably sold more meat from its home delivery service.  During the first part of the 1950’s there were still rationing challenges from the Second World War and the family diets still contained much more bread, potatoes, vegetables and milk than meat.  As the post-rationing years saw a steady increase in meat consumption, both butchers shops in Cawston seemed to survived very well. 
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7.  Other Traders
I would also like to mention that there were some tradespersons on wheels in the 1950’s.  Apart from the regular deliveries of coal, newspapers, bread and milk, a van came regularly from Page’s shop at Aylsham and another one from Reepham, in particularly to serve Eastgate.  The milk and newspapers were delivered daily; and the ‘Sunblest’ delivery van would come twice a week with the delivery of bread and ‘crumpets’ which in those days only meant the food we ate.  Coal as well as ‘coke’ (a mineral and not a drink in those days) were delivered on Saturdays.  There was a fishmonger from the coast and I am sure people of my age will remember the sound of Peter Pruzzi’s ice cream van that came on Sunday in the summer months.

Another popular type of shopping in the 1950’s was by the Littelwoods home shopping catalogue.  The so-called agent would give the catalogue to their relatives, friends and neighbours who would brouse through it and purchase an item to be paid for in weekly installments.  The agent would then place the order on his/her behalf and receive commission.  There were several agents in the neighbourhood who tried to improve their income this way.
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8.  Conclusion
Over the past 50 years there has been a significant deline in the number of retailers in Cawston despite a rise in the population.  Competition from larger self-service shops in biggers towns and cities and the rise in the number of vehicles on the roads have mainly been responsible for this. 

It is said that in a typical English village you find one church, one post office and at least one shop and one pub.  Fifty years ago Cawston had more; today there is still a church, post office, a couple of shops and pubs.  But what will it have in fifty years time? 

And as far as food is concerned, to the modern palate 1950’s food would seem bland and monotonous.  There was still food rationing at the start of the 1950’s which together with food shortages meant that plain country cooking was all that most housewives could do.  With only 2oz. of cheese and 5oz. of bacon allowed a week for each person in the first few years of the 1950’s, cooks had had to learn how to improvise and almost be a magician in the kitchen.  In those days we were nibbling away at the small piece of meat, big portions of potatoes and never criticised the over-boiled cabbage culture.  And there was no such thing as ‘fast food’ in the 1950’s.  Most people understood ‘fast food’ as being what you ate just before Lent.