Pymoor - Cross Roads

This view of the cross roads at the centre of the village was probably taken in the early 1980s.  To the left is Main Street.  School Lane leaves the top, Straight Furlong the right and Pymoor Lane leaves the bottom of the picture.

If this shot was repeated today almost nothing would look the same!  The cottage at the bottom left is gone, replaced by a new terrace of small houses along Main Street.  The garage opposite has gone too, also replaced by a new house.  Next door to the garage, the village store and post office is no more, though at least the building remains, now just a house.

The traditional red telephone box remains, but it now stands along side a brick built bus shelter.  The bus shelter would appear half obscured by a tree which is also beginning to cover the village sign, which stands on its other side.  You can see more detail of this on a close-up of the crossroads taken in 1991.

Behind the bushes below and to the right of the telephone box can be seen the remains of the village pond.  In earlier days this had a rail all round it and was a favourite place for villagers to sit and chat in the summer.  There were steps down to the water to make it easier for people to dip buckets into as it was used as a water supply.

A later development, before mains water was brought to the village, was the installation a hand pump.  This had a filter in it, but otherwise villagers used the water untreated.  The pond was kept filled by opening a sluice gate in banks of the Hundred Foot River.  This could only be done at high tide as it needed a good head of water in the river to drive the water through over half a mile of field drainage ditches to reach the pond.

The horse chestnut tree at the bottom of the picture has also gone.  The original died and was replaced, but had to be replaced again when men from the local Council mowed it while cutting the grass around it!

If you can give further information about the subject of this photograph, eg the dates when the shop or garage closed or when buildings were pulled down, please let me know.

Apologies for the colour of this shot.  I haven't had a chance to correct the obvious failings in an old photograph exposed to daylight for too long.

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