The Weekly Shop 1930s style!

Until that time the only shops in the High Street at this location were on the south side, all facing a high brick wall that bordered the gardens of ‘The Grange’. The estate was sold in its entirety following the death of the last surviving tenant Eleanor Joy Busk in 1936. Her husband, Major John Laird Busk had died in 1922 aged only 50 years.
The first shops to be built in the new parade were completed in 1938 being just the buildings at either end - the Co-op in its present position and a Chemist, Ernest J. White in the building which is now James Millard Estate Agents. The in-fill of the middle three shops did not complete this parade until the mid-1960s.


Gwen Smith was born in Fiddlers Cottage Westerham in 1935. I asked where her parents bought children’s clothes and school uniform.
“...There were two shops in Westerham, H. W. Smith where Chows is now, was a mens and boys outfitters, but was always called ‘mens French’s’. My husband Bill used to buy his shirts and suits there so it was a useful shop for us that had been there a long time, under the name of French’s, ever since I can remember as a little girl. I suppose they must have sold boys school uniforms as I remember Hosey caps in the window. There was a ‘ladies French’s’ between the International Stores and the Kings Arms which stocked absolutely everything for women including shoes. It was an ‘L’-shaped shop with floor to ceiling glass frontage, very smart. Upstairs were the fitting rooms, and I remember they were very caring towards their customers...”


Gwen thinks back to other shops as she grew up “…I remember Evenden’s the ironmongers beside the Kings Arms on the right; Miss Evenden had Margaret Fleet working for her and a Miss Hood, was it? They were very efficient and stocked literally everything, you just went in and said you’d got this job to do or you needed this and that and Margaret would say ‘right’ and disappear downstairs and within minutes she’d be back with exactly what you wanted - she was amazing…” 


Geoff Hoath was born at 24 High Street Westerham in 1930. His father had been born in the same house, as had his grandfather. “...We mainly used the Co-op for local shopping and it was on The Green in my earliest memories, where the captured German field-gun stood. If we didn’t shop there we would go to Woods the grocer down near Verralls corner. We used to use Evendens for any hardware or china and if you wanted something they didn’t stock, they’d get it for you pretty much the next day. You could buy two screws if you wanted, not a whole pack or go without like today. There was an old chap Mr Goose out the back who would sharpen your mower or cut you a key if you needed one.

Geoff Hoath continues "...there were lots of butchers in the town at that time but Mother mostly used Curly Bell at Doves in Market Square. They all sold a wide choice of meat, but if you wanted something special, most of them could get it for you..."

June Heath remembers local shopping “...apart from Woods and the Co-op, there was the International Stores which was where the new kitchen design shop is now, but in the left-hand half. They were different from the Co-op as they sold things like broken biscuits by weight, which when people were hard up, was very useful - it was an easier store for a bargain somehow. Having said that, Mother mainly shopped at the Co-op though, because of the ‘divi’ which meant you were saving some money. We also had MacFisheries in the little shop by Wolfe Garage, next to the Chemist, opposite The Green.

Enid Parker was born at Collinet Cottages on Brasted Chart in 1930. Her mother would shop in the village for essentials, but would come to Westerham for the ‘big-shop’. “...Mum used the International Stores by the Kings Arms which was a grocers shop, they did bacon, butter, biscuits and all that, but I don’t think they sold bread, you had to go to the baker or the Co-op for that. She was a Co-op member, but I don’t remember her shopping there so much - it was on the Green when I was tiny, in the big house by the Grasshopper pub, and they had those buzzy things to get the money to the cashier and get your change back. I remember going with my dad to Outram’s at the top-end of Sevenoaks to buy leather and rubber and sticky stuff to mend the family shoes which he did in the outside shed. He wasn’t a shoe-mender by trade - she laughs - he worked for the electricity board but he’d learned how to repair shoes in the army. There was only one shoe-mender in Brasted and he couldn’t cope with all the trade, so folk would bring their shoes to my dad for repair. When they were done it was my job to cycle round the village and return them to whoever had brought them in…”