Buying Fairfield Shop - Anne Hall

Buying Fairfield Shop Are things very different in trying to get on the housing ladder than they were years ago. I see lots of similar situations to mine described here when I see young people in the village now in a similar working situations and following a similar route. Maybe the planning laws and other laws plus the sale of Council Houses have had an impact in the number of houses to rent and build for young people not as easy even if you have family land. We are lucky in that the Housing Associations have built so many houses like Little Moss Close, Barratt Croft and Furness Road which has allowed us to have a more balanced community including young people than lots of other local communities in nearby villages and we must all keep working with the authorities to ensure these young people can get permissions for their needs . There must have been housing shortages in 1937 when Mrs Emily Hext gave land and got friends Mrs Gnosspelius and others to donate money to build the Lakeland Housing Trust houses at Torver which are so valuable today in providing for local young people to get their first home. Anne recalls how she first got a home after marrying in 1962. The only option was living in a flat above the Dairy and sharing the same kitchen and bathroom facilities as In Laws Elsie and Isaac Hall – not always the easiest thing to do. Wanting to have our own private facilities Anne took the job at the Co-op doing office paperwork and invoicing from 9am – 12noon which allowed us to take up rent of a flat at the Co-op. Having two children and no such luxury as Rachel Harvey and her day care facility for the children it was a real juggling act to keep things together. After two years Mrs Zac Knipe from Yewdale Road died and Father/Mother Fred and Bessie Hutchinson bought the house which we then rented from them. The house was very old fashioned including the old brown low sink and cold water tap and the whole house needing renovation and upgrade which we did over the year. It was then that the shop at Fairfield opposite the Church became available to rent. We worked the shop while living in Yewdale road. Anne Hall recalls the purchase of the Shop opposite the Church from Mrs Bertha Parker who had run the establishment for many years with her parents the Redheads. Her sister Dorothy married Bob Strong from Kirkby and they emigrated to America. As people may be aware Dorothy and Bob were great friends of Billy Stephenson the clock maker at the Forge. Though moving abroad they never lost the love of their roots which was Coniston and Bob, the last one to die was the person who set up the Trust for pupils from John Ruskin School to apply for money to support further education and he was keen for youngsters to develop in whatever way after leaving this School. Anne and Barry rented the premises called Fairfield from November 1965 which the Redheads had run as the Temperance Hotel and which had a large upstairs function room and a Bakery at the back. Many local wedding receptions were held upstairs in this room. In May 1966 Mrs Bertha Parker died and the Hall’s had been given first option to buy for the princely sum on £12,500 which they thought was a sum that would hang over their heads for a lifetime! The takings for the first week were £110 with Teddy Casson the road sweeper and Ernie Ridgeway being the first customers, Ernie for 10 cigarettes and there he is still going strong but happily not now smoking. Goods were bought direct from Brooke Bond Tea, Lyons Bakery, Thompson’s Pop from Barrow, Atkinson’s Toffee Makers of Windermere, Tom Allen of Kendal, Macfarlane Lang Biscuit Co, Cadbury Brothers, Sankey’s of Barrow Photographers and printers, Sanderson and Dixon Ambleside, Peak Frean Biscuit Co, Franchi’s Ice Cream of Barrow, H.S. Taylor of Kendal and A.G,Gates of Kendal who in those days were cigarette wholesalers rather than Travel Agents. The accounts with the four big cigarette companies were enormous as we sold thousands per month as most people in those days smoked. We also dealt with the Abraham Brothers of Keswick and Anne remembers when the brother called for an order, they liked to spend money with you as a token of thanks and remembers purchases of Pipe tobacco and Rum butter which nearly came to more than I had spent in buying his postcards. The shop had always had local gifts for sale and was the major source for Ruskin Pottery and had the franchise for Beswick Pottery and Carlton Ware, both products that are now bringing big money on eBay and auctions. Joyce Thompson was paid the princely sum of £4 – 5shillings for looking after the children Frances and David and doing housework while many locals had part time jobs in the shop as the youngsters do now. Sue Park, Nicky Belcher, Kath and Anne Milburn from Woodland were among the first employed. Sandra Rigg was the first to be employed full time. Sheila and Jill Wilson, Verina Atkinson, Stephen Brockbank, Mandy Murphy, and many more part time helpers, with of course Frances and David following part time then and finally buying the business from their parents in May 1988. Purchase of South View in 1970 for £4500 followed for Anne and Barry to live separate from the shop and then in 1980 the purchase of Dow Crag House for £75,000