Shop facelift reveals old identity

By Gill Miller

The name of private grocer A C Mott Ltd was uncovered when the village hardware store Reynolds underwent a facelift.

The current shop name was temporarily removed to protect it while redecoration was carried out and revealed the identity of another business carried on prior to the days of automatic telephone exchanges.

Then Cooden had its own prestigious four digit telephone number which in the case of the grocery business was Cooden 2108.

Husband and wife team Paul and Gill Reynolds have owned the popular Cooden Sea Road hardware store for eight years.

"When we took the sign down in preparation for decoration, it revealed the older sign showing the shop used to be a private grocer," said Paul.

They have not been able to date the sign but such has been the interest that they placed some photographs in the shop window showing Little Common when it really could be called a village.

According to Brionie and Peter Ballard of Pear Tree Lane, the grocers could predate the Second World War. Peter was born in 1939 and Brionie says her husband can remember in the 1940s the name of H H Hills being printed in "big white letters" on the roof of the now hardware store.

Nelson Sands, 78, who still lives in the house he was born in at Sandhurst Lane, says his father Arthur worked for the Hill family as a gardener at their home in The Broadwalk.

He believes Mott's grocery business came after H H Hill and can remember a Bill Dubbin who worked there.

Can you remember the shop as A C Mott Ltd or any other business that has been run on the same site over the years? If you have any memories or photographs relating to the shop, the Observer would love to hear from you. Call into our offices at 18 Sackville Road or email us at [email protected]