Kentish Express Ashford & District
Ready for a Christmas like no other
1980 - The retail stationery business which included a book and art department and a fancy goods department, pictured at numbers 44 and 46 high street. Number 46 (the larger premises) had originally occupied the grocery business
Well, another Christmas is here, and hopefully readers are as ready as they can be for what is probably the most unprecedented festive arrangement ever.
We will all make it what we make it and, for the first time ever, air caution over festive gatherings with the advice given from our Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
My thoughts extend to those absent friends and their families and those who have passed away during 2020, many as a result of this awful pandemic.
Thinking of those, too, that 1975 - Many will remember Headley Brothers’ earlier shop at 40 high street which had a fantastic toy department and train set on the upper floor. Number 40 was an earlier location for the Post Office, too. The shop illustrated was kept on after number 46 was completed and some of the departments moved to the other shop have contracted the virus and have survived albeit with lasting effects.
My own mother contracted the Covid-19 virus in May as a nursing home resident.
The uncertainty over such a situation is intolerable, I know.
My heart goes out to all those affected.
For many of us, to get into the Christmas mood has been fraught and challenging and I know of many that are treating it as just another day and not even putting up decorations.
That said, I’ve noticed more and more houses dressed up with wonderful light displays.
Some are determined to make something special of Christmas 2020, and well done to them!
The situation on the high street has been something of a challenge, too, with both shopping limitations and permanent departures of some of our much-used trades and chains.
The recent loss of Debenhams and the prepandemic departure of M&S has left a huge void in our town centre that has severely compromised the choice that we’ve long been used to.
There are many muchmissed shops and stores that once graced our town of Ashford over the decades.
It might have been an independent trader or it might have been a chain.
Whatever they were, we miss them.
This week’s Remember
When looks back to the Headley name from high street past in a trio of images.
Headley was largely known for its reputable and historic printing business in the town, but here we look back at the grocery side of the family and the retail stationery departmental store on the high street.
It just leaves me to wish our readers a safe and healthy Christmas. Please follow the rules.
If we take these precautions, the sooner we will be able to have normality back.
Do you have any photographs of Ashford you would be willing to loan me?
Email me: rememberwhen_ kmash@hotmail.co.uk 1963 - The once-familiar grocery business of Headley’s which for decades occupied 46 high street until moving to premises at Cobbs Wood. The premises pictured were demolished in 1976 and rebuilt in the same style as a new retail shop and Post Office for Headley Brothers, which already had its shops adjacent to the grocery business on the high street