LOOKING BACK - October 10, 2019

Memories of the High Street in Hillmorton
Jim Braisby in his fashionable plus fours, standing outside what was  and still is  Hillmorton Post OfficeJim Braisby in his fashionable plus fours, standing outside what was  and still is  Hillmorton Post Office
Jim Braisby in his fashionable plus fours, standing outside what was and still is Hillmorton Post Office

Thank you very much to one of our Memory Lane regular contributors, Lorraine Hardiman for this week’s edition about her mother and the local shops in Hillmorton.

In the late 1930s Lorraine’s mother Margie Goodman (who many of you will have known as Margie Faulkner) was engaged to local Hillmorton shop owner Jim Braisby.

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Sadly Jim was called up in 1939 and his troop ship was torpedoed and he was not saved.

Mrs Emily Goodman, looking very 1930s in her cloche hat, with the thatched 
Temperance Hall in the background and the cottages on her right. This is now the site of Duffy Place, off High Street, Hillmorton.Mrs Emily Goodman, looking very 1930s in her cloche hat, with the thatched 
Temperance Hall in the background and the cottages on her right. This is now the site of Duffy Place, off High Street, Hillmorton.
Mrs Emily Goodman, looking very 1930s in her cloche hat, with the thatched Temperance Hall in the background and the cottages on her right. This is now the site of Duffy Place, off High Street, Hillmorton.

Lorraine explains: “At that time my maternal grandmother Emily Goodman owned a little general store almost opposite Jim’s shop. It was later bought by a John Walton and was known as ‘John’s’ until he retired and I think it has now been converted into a house.

“The plan had been for Mum to take over the general store so that she and Jim would have built up their little empire of shops in the village.”

Instead during WWII Margie was ‘conscripted’ into working on the payroll at the BTH.

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When Jim Braisby’s father retired, the shop was bought by the Thompson brothers, who at one time owned most of the shops in the row, the post office/newsagent, both fish and chip shops and a butcher’s, and maybe others.

Jim Braisby (on the right)  with his sister Gladys and her fiance (on the left). 
Lorraine cant remember his first name, but his surname was Dolman and when he returned from the war he and Gladys marriedJim Braisby (on the right)  with his sister Gladys and her fiance (on the left). 
Lorraine cant remember his first name, but his surname was Dolman and when he returned from the war he and Gladys married
Jim Braisby (on the right) with his sister Gladys and her fiance (on the left). Lorraine cant remember his first name, but his surname was Dolman and when he returned from the war he and Gladys married

The postmaster at Hillmorton Village Post Office in the 1960s was Mr George and the story comes full circle as in 1967 Lorraine’s mother, who was always good with figures, started work for Mr George on the post office side of the shop.

“She spent many happy years working for Mr George who was a true gentleman,” said Lorraine.

“She then continued in post office work under Mr Len Walton and Mr Brian Coleman, before transferring to the now closed Paddox Post Office until her retirement.

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“Wasn’t it ironic that in middle age she worked in the very shop that would have been owned by Jim and herself?”

Margie later enjoyed a long and happy marriage to George Faulkner, Lorraine’s late father, who many of you will remember from his many contributions to Memory Lane.

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