We walked up into the village and whilst it has 2 pubs (The George and Dragon, The White Swan), an Indian and a post office open, the village shop had closed a few weeks earlier, through lack of support according to the notice. Fortunately the owner of the shop in Higham on the Hill is hoping to buy it and as an interim was selling papers, bread and milk from the back of his estate car in the car park of the Stoke Golding Club.
As we walked up to the village we passed the church and a farmyard with this cute little face looking out at us and these lovely Golden Retrievers in the yard.
Later after an early lunch I took the No.86 bus into Hinckley to buy some provisions and have a look around this old market town. The bus runs every hour and takes about 15 minutes calling into Dadlington on the way. This is a spread out village on the hill overlooking the canal and has a large village green where the bus turns around to head back to Hinckley.
On the outskirts of Hinckley is a large Morrisons supermarket and a cluster of other shops including Halfords.
Hinckley was busy, the Saturday Market in Castle Street had stalls selling all sorts at reasonable prices and a good range of shops. The town is well known for its hosiery manufacturing and the hansom cab which is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.
Returning to the boat the wind had picked up but the promised heavy rain had not materialised and we had a warm sunny afternoon with the odd spit of rain.
Three pubs in Stoke' don't forget the 'Three Horseshoes' (only a few yards from the 'George & Dragon') going down Main Street, which may be the oldest pub in the village , for many years brewed its own ale and is reputedly haunted. I grew up in Stoke Golding when until the late 1960's The village had three busy factories its own shoe repairer,baker,Co-Op, butcher, wool shop, grocery shop, post office . Years before a general shop also stood near the church school, a railway station from which it took 11 minutes to Nuneaton, petrol pump (next to Methodist chapel),run by the grocery shop, across from the former site of the post office - and a chip shop (which my Dad owned for a few years before its demolition). It seems as the village has grown residentially it has shrunk commercially.. what a great shame.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the update. Interesting to hear about the past prosperity of the village.
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