Day 84. The Village Shop

Margaret Beavington, wife of Preston baker Dick Beavington, c.1960. The Beavington family ran a shop alongside the bakery at No.50 for two generations.

 

People have always made a business from selling to others what they cannot produce, grow, rear or gather for themselves. Many families were once largely self-sufficient for food and other household goods – they often didn't have the income to do otherwise – but craftsmen such as shoemakers and tailors ran successful businesses from their homes.

This self-sufficiency declined from the 18^th century, and the potential for a local shop selling general products arose. As one example most women knitted and darned their own clothing; they had also spun their own wool until the Industrial Revolution mechanised the process and the skill faded into obscurity. A market for spun yarn arose in concert.

Candles, made from beeswax or tallow, were also once produced according to the ability of each householder; they then became a standard item of purchase for even the poorer families.

More luxury items for purchase – oranges, raisins, tobacco, spices, tea leaves –  filtered down through the classes during the 19^th century, and the grocer's trade began to thrive. By the late Victorian era, 'convenience' items such as boxes of soap powder, tinned fruit, jam, biscuits, flour (once coming direct from the village mill) and dozens of other items provided a surge in potential for the shopkeeper.

The first recorded grocer's shop in Preston was in the 1860s. The village shop remained central to the community until the late 20^th century, when the desire for convenience which had fuelled their inception led to their downfall. The supermarket had arrived.