The Shop on the Green, or The Stores
The shop was the end one of a terrace of three houses that stood between the Green and Chapel Lane (or the Alley). They were thought to have been built in the early 19th century. and of clay lump construction.
The buildings still stand but the shop is now just a private home. Over the years there have been many owners or tenants, for much of that time one of its front rooms was used as shop.
Local stories claim the row of 3 cottages were sold for £50 over a pint in the Crown, but no date is given.
1839/40 details from Tithe Apportionments:
Tm 407, cottage & garden -owner & occupier John Pyman . This was the size of 2 cottages as the shop was added later
Tm 408a, cottage & garden -owner John Pyman, occ George Baker. At the end of the Alley, later called Blenco’s
According ro various trade directories between 1840 and 1850 John Pyman was a shop keeper in Thorney Green. In 1851 William Pyman age 43 is a grocer in Thorney Green and in various directories he is named as a shop keeper through to 1874.
There then seems some confusion as to whether Abraham (Abram) Diaper took over this shop or whether he had premises along Back Road.
By the 1920’s when Mrs Box went to London, she let the house and shop to Mr & Mrs James Diaper (apparently not a relative of Abraham and for a time the shop was closed.
A few years later G.Jackson bought the cottages and gave the end and centre one to his mother and Mr & Mrs Samuel Skinner either became tenants or bought the one with the shop and between the 1920s and 40s the shop became known as Skinner’s.
The young Leslie Brame recalled being told to ‘Run up to the shop and get half-pound of cheese’, this was red cheddar imported from New Zealand. ‘it came to the shop in the form of a squashed sphere, with a good wax rind on it, and it was cut with a special cheese cutter… we took home a wedge-shaped segment…more or less the weight we had asked for’.
Sometimes it was fat and lean pickled pork that Leslie was sent to buy. This was kept ‘in a stone jar of salt water under his counter…and mother would put it into a rabbit pie.’
The shop closed again in 1945 but the Skinner’s remained till after Mrs Skinner’s death in 1951 when Mr Skinner sold the property to Mr and Mrs Matthias.
From the 1950’s Winnie and Ben (John Benjamin) Matthias shared the work of running their shop.
Ben delivered the grocery orders after working all day at the Stowmarket Iron Foundry whilst his wife took care of the day-to-day running of the shop. Read more in A Stowupland General Store, Matthias to Mann.
1965: Matthias sold to the Mann’s.
The shop was reopened by Frank R.D. Mann, mainly as a sweet shop till he retired on 30th September 1981. The house was sold and became a private home.
