Quorn Commerce - Past and Present

We are very grateful to Tony Gale for providing much of the information for this article. Thanks also to Sheila Brewer, a former Quorn resident.

The High Street of Quorn in the 1930's and 1940's was very different to the one we see now. Businesses and enterprises develop, and more, sadly. disappear - there may be no-one to carry on the business when the proprietor retires, markets change, or a local service become a regional or even national one. (Quorn used to have its own gasworks!) Here's what you may have seen if you walked down the High Street some 40 or 50 years ago....

We start at Church Lane, just past Rawlins School. The grassy area to the left was once a row of cottages (The Banks). One of these was a shoe shop and cobblers owned by Mr Disney - a smell of leather and a mouth full of tin tacks. Close by was Joan's, a hairdressing salon.

Further down toward the Cross was a newsagent run by Ernest Joyce - now operating as QuornNews. Next door to this, but long gone. was Frank Butchers grocery shop. There was another row of buildings between this and the Methodist Church and one of our contributors remembers there being a garage among them, run by Mr Priestly, who was always singing and telling jokes, and who used to hire out a beige coloured bus for trips to the coast.

At the Cross Barrie's Greengrocer's was once a clock shop run by Mrs Lucas, and the Mill on the Soar Antiques was formerly the Post Office. selling provisions on the left as you went in. and postal services on the right.

Back at our starting point, on the right past the White Hart pub was Mr Aylwards, dealing in electrical, radio, television and even cycle repairs (now Threeways Engineering). Past Quorn Court came Bellamy's (Ladies Hairdressing). Next door was Bailey's, a grocer, which sold loose biscuits from rows of open topped tins, and which is now Farmers Interiors. We think that at one time it may also have been a bank. Next was Mr Green (chemist) and then Morgans (grocers), until recently a craft shop but now a dry cleaners. The large building with the 'number 18' sign outside used to be the Bull's Head Hotel - look up for the Bull's Head!

At what is now Gino's Restaurant was once (and until fairly recently) Silvesters butchers, but at another time was Mrs Heafford's, a corsetiere. Our contributor remembers that when Mrs Heafford's daughter lay dying in her bed in the front room. the Council put sand on the road outside to quieten the noise of the traffic. Next was Robert Shaw (knitting wool and draperies) now the Quorn Takeaway and finally, where Ferrari's Trattoria now stands. was Frank Bayliss, the greengrocer.

There were many more businesses around the village, not only in the principal streets (Leicester Road, Station Road, Meeting Street and Barrow Road) but also in smaller roads which are now mainly residential.

We hope to cover some of these in future issues In the mean time. if any readers have recollections of village commerce and industry, we would love to hear of them
Photographs would be especially interesting.

Please send your contributions to Joan at Barrie's.