The Old Bakery, as it is now called, in Ham Street has gone through a lot of changes in recent years and it looks as though all the major jobs have now finished.
The first big change was the addition of a bay window on the left. The old bricks were used to build the bay and the spaces created were filled in with bricks that are somewhat lighter than the old ones. The front porch is new too, as is the front wall and railings.
It looks neat enough but I cannot help feeling that it has rather overreached itself and has perhaps become a little bit pretentious.
In the 50s, 60s, and 70s "The Old Bakery" was the Co-op, a wonderful shop presided over by Mr and Mrs Cox. Mr Cox would slice bacon and ham to customers' specifications despite his very rheumatic hands. Mrs Cox knew all the business of the village, yet never gossiped. My brother was the delivery boy there while he was at school; he would ride round the village with orders packed in a big wicker baskPs Fruit Gums there, and give the black ones to Mr Cox because they were his favourites. Perhaps it was a bakery before it was the Co-op, but that was before my time and even my mother's time.
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