Wilson’s Shop, Coney Moor, early 1900’s

This was in the last house of the two older cottages at the end of the Coney Moor rows. A typical village shop of this time.

The shopkeeper and her assistant (Miss Nellie Calline, later Mrs. Smith of 40, Main Street) stand at the shop doorway in their snow-white aprons. Snow is on the ground. The sign above the door reads ‘Wilson’s Boot Warehouse, Draper and Provision Dealer’ and gives some idea of the great variety of goods sold in this village business.

In the windows – groceries and sweets in the left-hand window, drapery in the right-hand window, with metal adverts on the walls for soap, tea, chocolate. There are net curtains at the house windows and crocheted edged blinds. Little transport being available, such well-stocked shops were invaluable, a vital asset for villagers.

Lower Mickletown from Boat Lane, 1983

On the right, west, end house of a pair of semi-detached houses built late 1930s, then four older houses of Moor View (ie. looking over Coney Moor), then a bungalow on site of older demolished property. The gable visible between the bungalow and Moor View houses is that of one of the two detached houses built on the site of the former Moor Side Farm, which was occupied by the Hyatt family for many years.

Further down is the gable of modernised older houses. Between the old people’s bungalows and Moor View there has been re-development – several new dormer bungalows have been built. Lower Mickletown is becoming a developed area!