When I moved here 20+ years ago the corner shop was run by an Indian couple known as Fred and Sue. I don't know how long they'd been there before that. They lived upstairs and brought up children and then grandchildren there. My daughter (now in her 30s) had her first job delivering papers for them.
It was handy to pop to the corner to buy a newspaper, tobacco, milk or the occasional emergency rations; a tin of beans, eggs, loaf of bread... It wasn't really the sort of shop you'd buy much else in. So that was all most people bought, apart from the children who popped in for their penny sweets on the way home from school. I often wondered how they managed to make a living.
What really did for them was the Turkish shop that opened a few doors in the opposite direction a few years ago. It didn't sell papers but it did sell alcohol and fresh(ish) veg and was also open until 10 at night whereas Fred and Sue closed at 7. It took over what had been a bargain carpet shop - I still have the stair carpet they fitted for me over 10 years ago and it doesn't need replacing yet!
So with that, and the fact that Fred and Sue had probably reached retirement age and there wasn't much there for their son to inherit, it's hardly surprising that the corner shop closed a few weeks ago.
I've been told that there's a planning application to turn it into a house or flats. That probably means we'll lose the rather splendid Crick's Corner ghost sign too. Crick was one of the previous owners of the shop. Fred knew a bit about him but I never got round to really finding out from him. Now it's too late...