Shopping in Villiers Road

Memories from Oxhey Fair

Villiers Road
c Nigel Cox under a Creative Commons Licence

If you had gone further up on this side Lovedays is on the corner there. On the opposite corner was Palmers which was the other beautiful delicatessen place where you went and they cut all the cheeses and the hams and everything like that [off the bone] all beautifully off the bone, all cooked on the premises as well [lovely]. And then further up the road was um Hockers which was a little shop and they used to have big double freezer which always had sweat peas on there and she let you sit on it as a child and they gave you bread and things like that.  

On the opposite side was the fish shop and that was a little stall, I’ve forgotten its name of the lady there but she used to sell bread and sweets and things like that. And then there was um, the harvest stall and then there was a butchers and further down in, in Caple Road was a butchers and two greengrocers as well, all in this little area and now its all gone.  

[I was talking to someone earlier today and she was saying that there is a greengrocers that is setting up a little stall] Brown’s, Brown’s from Bushey, who use to do Brown’s who were in Bushey, the big greengrocers in Bushey High Street and in the market he now supplies people wholesale and he’s doing it on a Saturday morning outside Lovedays. As a child Lovedays used to be the only bakers in the areas, and you used to queue on Good Friday and you used to get your hot crossed buns and he only cooked them Friday, on the Good Friday and you queued in the morning to get them. And in the bread shortage, you know when there was that big bread shortage, he used to sell doe to us all. Shrewd man [laugh].

This page was added on 07/09/2012.

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  • I’m researching my husbands family tree, his aunt Kathleen Hocker owned the grocery store with her husband Sydney, 97, villiers road, this would have been in the 50’s I think. Anyone have any pictures of the outside of the shop? I have one of the inside.
    Thanks, Julie Cranwell

    By Julie cranwell (29/11/2020)
  • I think the boss of Ritchie and Crutchee had a Javalin sports car…I remember watching him drive off in it when I walked to school. On the same side opposite Browns almost was another builder….Bill Bliss was the boss, Fred Bliss’ nephew who I used to work for. In Villiers Road, almost opposite Crawley’s was a sweet shop run by a man called Albury Barden. Mr Henwood owned the boot menders.

    By Roy Soden (30/05/2014)
  • Builder on the left as you went up from the station; Cutchee and Richards, I worked for them for a while in the early 1960’s. Only people I remember were the Brickie; Ivor Andrews and the boss who we all called Puffer, forget his real name

    By bill brown (03/11/2013)
  • My Brother Jim, and myself had to shop at the Co-op for our Mum every Saturday morning during the 1940’s.We used our Sister’s pushchair for carrying the shopping, which was fun, as from Carpenders Avenue to the Co-op we had the hills in Oxhey Lane, which enabled us to cruise down on the pushchair.

    On arrival at the Co-op you had to understand the layout of the shop, on the left was biscuits, jams, household items, toiletries etc., certain items required points, like tea, so we had to produce our ration books when paying. You then had to proceed to the right hand counter to purchase eggs, butter, cheese, bacon etc.,which also required points to be taken from our ration books.

    The staff working on the right counter had to wear white bib type aprons. We always found the Berkel Bacon slicer fascinating, as we were always asked about the thickness of the slices that Mum had written on her shopping list. The split in shop layout was also used by Gibsons the Butchers they had Pork on one side and Beef on the other.

    By Arthur Hall (20/10/2013)
  • There were also shops in Pinner Road. Mr Benton had a sweet shop on the corner of Capel and Pinner Roads. Further up Pinner Road was a barbers and Miss Bush had a haberdashery shop on the corner of Grover Road. Opposite was another sweet shop and further up where the roads divide was a Co-op which also had a hall above it where several locals held wedding receptions. Opposite the Co-op next to the Table Hall was, if I remember correctly, Mr Tilbury another grocery shop. Even further up Pinner Road opposite Villiers road was another small grocery shop, so there were lots of shopping opportunities in the area.

    By Virginia Barber (02/07/2013)
  • The two Greengrocers in Capel Road were Brown’s, and Turner’s. Capel Carpets moved to larger premises in St Albans Road. Watford. There was also ‘Crawley’s’ Ironmonger’s on the corner of Paddock Road & Villiers Road. Other shops in the area were the Express Dairy, which is now a Cycle Shop, further along London Road was Everett’s the Grocers, Mr Everett roasted coffee in the left hand window of the shop which was then joined to Bushey Vale Garages on the corner of Haydon Road. The Petrol Pumps were removed when the garage closed & moved to Vale Road. A ‘Grocers’ still remains on the site.

    By Arthur Hall (06/05/2013)