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the early 1900's Henham had a quite a number of shops and at least four
public houses. In common with many other villages in the area and
indeed throughout the country, changes in mobility, work and life styles
in the following century changed the nature of the village and by 1998 one
shop and one public house remained. |
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In May 1998, the announcement was made
that our last shop in the village, a general store and post office was due to close because it
was failing as a viable concern. After being completely run down
from June, it finally closed its doors on 21st September 1998. |
| The village was faced with the decision
that unless we helped ourselves, an important part of village life would
disappear for good. |
| Today
in 2009 we still have have a thriving shop run by volunteers from
the Henham community but the post office part run by Bessie Hayden was
forced to close on 1st July by Post Offices Ltd. despite it being highly successful.
On Friday 12 December 1908 it was re-opened again thanks to an initiative by
Essex County Council - See below |
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Whilst
so far the enterprise must be considered a great success, an ongoing problem
is to keep the list of volunteers at a suitable level. As to be
expected, people's circumstances are constantly changing and it has
proved difficult to find villagers who are willing to commit themselves
to regular duty slots and to be reserves. Often, we have to rely
on a small nucleus to keep the shop running during holiday times and in
emergencies.
On the plus side, the shop has
already won two awards, viz. finalist in the Cambridge Evening News
Community Challenge Awards and runner up in the Village Ventures
Competition.
After more than five years
trading there is confidence that the shop will continue to thrive.
We have repaid our original loans and in November 2001 we had sufficient
funds to relay the floor.
If you wish to know more,
click
here for an account written by Barry Tate
on how the shop was saved.
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Red Letter Day
Henham Post Office
Having been closed by Post Office Ltd on 1st July 2008, it is
with great pleasure we announce that Henham Post office, part of the Henham
Community shop, was officially re-opened on Friday 12th December as a result
of the Essex County Council Post Office Initiative. It is to be a sub
post office to the Standon branch.
Bessie Hayden, our former post
mistress, will be back in post (excuse the pun) three times a week from
9.00am to 12 noon, Mondays, Thursdays
and Saturdays.
On behalf of the village, thanks must go
to Cllr Ray Gooding and Essex County Council, Henham Parish Council, the
Henham Village Shop Association and in particular Chris Swain, Linda Peake
and Pat Dent. Also to the Post Mistress of Standon Post Office for offering
her services and to Pellys the Solicitors for giving legal advice free of
charge. |
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Present at the opening were our M.P. the Rt.
Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst, Essex County Councillor Ray Gooding, District
councillor David Morson, Acting Chairman of Henham Parish Council, Nick Baker OBE
and the opening ceremony was conducted by
County Councillor
Stephen Castle, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration on
behalf of Lord Hanningfield, the Leader of Essex C.C. |
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Guest of Honour was Father Christmas who
accepted Christmas letters from a number of children from Henham and Ugly
primary school. |
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Present at the opening were our M.P. the Rt.
Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst, Essex County Councillor Ray Gooding, District
councillor David Morson, Acting Chairman of Henham Parish Council, Nick
Baker OBE and the opening ceremony was conducted by
County Councillor
Stephen Castle, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration on
behalf of Lord Hanningfield, the Leader of Essex C.C. |
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Guest of Honour was Father Christmas who
accepted Christmas letters from a number of children from Henham and Ugly
primary school. |
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Bessie being interviewed for local radio. |
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Essex County Council have also
installed a Community Information Point which is a wonderful touch screen
computer that allows
customers free of charge to access many types of information including this web site and
the History of Henham web site . |
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One person who should be mentioned as a
considerable influence on the return of the Post Office was Martin
Nicholson, former Chairman of the Parish Council who sadly died a couple of
weeks ago. He regularly 'leaked' the latest information on the
progress of restoring the Post Office to Henham, at the same time slapping a
'D Notice' on me regarding publication of the information. He would
have taken great pleasure in today's events. |
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Annual General Meeting of The Village
Shop held on Thursday 19th May 2011 at Henham Village Hall |
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The AGM of the Village
Shop took place on Thursday 19th May 2011. The shop is now in
its 13th year of trading and the Chairman, Chris Swain, reported
that financially the shop is in a very good position at present. This is
due thanks to a generous grant from Essex CC as part of the Post Office and
information centre arrangements. This additional finance has now ceased
but the reserve fund is larger than normal at present. These funds are
used for upkeep and replacement of equipment and maintenance of the shop.
We recently had to purchase a new till for example.
The trading turnover has
increased slightly due in part to increased trade but also due to increased
costs of supply. The Chairman thanked all the volunteers concerned in the
running of the shop for giving up so much of their time, in particular Linda
Peake who co-ordinates the stock and staffing and Richard Goodworth who is
our Treasurer.
The Chairman hopes to
increase the membership of the Association this year as numbers have fallen
due to people leaving the village. A high membership number shows the level
of community support and gives ammunition when we need to contact outside
bodies for grants and in the negotiations for the continuation of Post
Office services. Please ask at the Post Office for a form if you are not
already a member.
The Post Office
situation is still uncertain as we await details of the Government plans for
reorganisation of the post office network. Chris Swain has begun making
representations to various parliamentarians and to the Plunket Foundation
regarding this and he will continue to make representations on our behalf to
ensure continuation of our Post Office after December this year.
Linda Peake |
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