Looking down High Street the view is dominated by the broad frontage of People’s Market, actually on West Street. Until the early 1800s that view would have been to a much older building that fell down from disrepair and the adjacent buildings to the West abutted another very important structure – Manor Farm. With the George Inn at the crossroads corner opposite the Market, the historic economic and political hub of the village is clear to understand.
As maps and early photos show, High Street was the natural hub of the village and in common with some other villages was wider than it needed to be as a thoroughfare, thus providing communal, trading and ceremonial space. While we can speculate on what comprised the road surface before it was metalled, we can be confident about the road edges – no pavement but cobbled with large smooth flints that were hardly comfortable to walk on but were better than the muck of a packed earth roadway. And the cobbles are still there today.
The buildings of High Street today are nearly all residential and some of the oldest in the village. Over the years they housed businesses, workshops, butchers and bakers, an inn, a school and a working men’s institute.
