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VILLAGE NEWS
LOGS FOR SALE
Support the Wildlife Trust’s Hunts
Reserves Appeal
£40 per cubic yard Unprocessed
£80 per cubic yard Processed
(including local delivery)
Mainly Oak & Ash, all from Brampton Wood
Phone:
George Cottam
on:
01480 450809
or e-mail:
georgecottam@dsl.pipex.com
Flo Coomber’s
Opposite The Green, Flo Coomber’s was the first in a terrace of three cottages. Weather permitting and during an
absence of customers, Flo could be found outside, leaning against the cheek of her boundary wall (
only recently
removed)
, calling out to passers-by and shouting details of her best buys to youngsters….”Plums today. Tell your
Mum!” That wall was particularly helpful to Flo because she only had one good leg; the other ended in a stump
and was cocooned in a motley selection of bandages.
Beside her front door were crates containing salad items, vegetables and orchard fruit, even walnuts. ‘Serve your-
self!’ The produce was mostly of local origin and today would’ve probably been marketed as ‘organic’! ‘Open all
hours’, it was only Louis Seaman’s visit, cycling up from Offord to undertake the annual stock-take (on a Sunday),
that interrupted business.
Flo ran her shop from her front room. Enter the doorway and turn sharp left or you would find yourself in a painful
encounter with her chiffonier. Pan around the room and see the couch, where the dog slumbered. It was black,
and could’ve been mistaken for a rag-rug! (Rumour had it that dog was none too particular where it cocked its
leg!). Take in the haphazard display of boxed chocolates, tins of biscuits, bottles of Corona and Tizer. Centre
stage was a colourful selection of sweets, behind which Flo, encased in her ‘wraparound pinny’, seated herself,
utilising the light from the adjacent window in order to oversee business.
With her selection of sweets, many sold in multiples to the penny (
that’s 1d
!), Flo’s was popular with village kids.
This was in spite of quite widespread parental opposition, the reasons for which, as youngsters, we were largely
impervious to; while proximity to the school simply served to amplify the shop’s magnetism. These were days
when children made their own way to and from school and so were free of helicopter parents, who might other-
wise scupper any purchasing plans.
Business was further bolstered by her Christmas club. Contributors could set aside 6d or more weekly, from sum-
mer onwards, with a view to saving-up for a bit of a splurge on some of Flo’s specials at Christmas….. jigsaws,
board games, a tin of Tartan shortbread or Bluebird toffees.
Flo was a habitual smoker, with each fag glued to her lips until the final embers dropped into her lap. The open
fire augmented the smoky haze. These being days many decades before the advent of Dettox and the like, hy-
giene was not a high priority. There was a token fly-paper suspended from the ceiling, but this was invariably en-
crusted with a lace-like layer of wings and legs –
not nice
! Flo’s hands had more the look of the farm labourer than
of someone handling edibles. The many sweets….liquorice sticks and Catherine Wheels, chocolate tools and Fly-
ing Saucers, that were free of a protective wrapper, faced prolonged exposure to the ambient dust and smoke as
well as to the intermittent exhalations of Flo’s hacking cough! Perhaps worse, as you deliberated over your choice
of sweets, they would each in turn be swept up into Flo’s bare hands. It was not until your selection was complet-
ed that those sweets, finally, reached the safety of a small paper bag.
AMB
(Florence Coomber – Shopkeeper – died age 74 and was buried in Buckden Cemetery 20.1.62)
First in a series of articles—products of shared content with contributions from Bob Baxter, Shirley Brown, Belle
Burke, Betty Gale, Jane Page, Joan Parrett, Tommy Richardson and Brian Riseley
Buckden Local
History Society
Perhaps rather more ladies
than gentlemen gathered to
listen to Gilly Vose explain the
birth of the High Street from the markets of the mid-
dle ages. She illustrated her points with tales of St
Ives from the early days up to the present. When in
St Ives look up in the doorway of M & Co to see an
ancient wood carving of the Arms of Ramsey Abbey
saved as the building gradually entered the present
day. We were startlingly good at her light-hearted
quiz on 50’s adverts which rounded off the even-
ing. One wonders if any of today’s will be as easily
recalled!
Tickets are available for ‘Tudor Christmas’ an even-
ing of narrative, images and music with seasonal re-
freshments at BLHS meetings or from the secretary
14 Mill Road. Members £3.00, Visitors £5.00.
The next meeting is on November 4
th
at 7.30 pm in
the Conference Room at the Towers.