An Historic High Street

Brookley Road 2

When thinking of High Street shops today, one imagines the chain store outlets that can be found in major cities across the globe. Not so in Brockenhurst. It is possible to drive through this village for years without coming across Brookley Road, which is the high street. Jackie, Ian, Becky lead this group of pedestrians on the way to the rows of small, local, shops.

Somehow the buildings in this thoroughfare, some dating from the nineteenth century, have escaped succumbing to corporate facades.

Reynolds

Reynolds entrance

The ladies and gentlemen’s outfitters, Reynolds, for example still sports its original entrance complete with adjustable front railings.

Day Lewis Pharmacy

Day Lewis Pharmacy still has its original windows.

Jackie and Becky outside Brock Ante 2Jackie and Becky outside Brock Ante 3

Jackie parked opposite Brock Ante and led our daughter inside the antiques shop where we had bought one of Becky’s Christmas presents. In view of what I was about to see, the name of the barber was rather fortuitous.

Knots Knits & Crafty Bits

A short while later, Knots, Knits & Crafty Bits opened their door to display enticing yarns.

Village VegVillage Butcher

Alongside Splish Splash stand Village Veg and Village Butcher.

Brookley Road (Ian)

As I reached this point, I encountered Ian, who had wandered further down the street. He alerted me to the ford.

Heavy overnight rain had converted much of the forest into a mini Lake District. Some roads we had driven through were awash, and ditches lining the route into this end of Brockenhurst had run into the stream that was forded at the end of the street.

Village Centre via Ford

This made the signpost ‘High Street via Ford’ even more descriptive.

Car travelling through ford 1Car travelling through ford 3Car travelling through ford 4Car travelling through ford 5Car travelling through ford 7

Although some vehicles made an about turn and did not venture into the rushing water, others, at varying speeds, carried on through. The faster the car, the more the spray.

Ian came back to join me and we walked together back to the shops.

Queue outside Bakehouse

A queue had now formed outside Bakehouse. The youth of those present suggests that the bakers are feeding the students of Brockenhurst College, which must contribute to the village’s prosperity.

Bakehouse and Best Sellers

My earlier photograph also shows Best Sellers which is being decorated. I do hope that does not mean that this bookshop has closed down. I will keep an eye on it.

Pharmacy etc

The Post Office, a survivor of an ever-reducing band, stands next to Reynolds and the delicatessen. Jackie’s Modus is parked outside the pharmacy. In how many high streets could this happen?

After our rendezvous we all drank cappuccinos in The Buttery.

Dynasty entrance

Possibly the most modern building in the street is the Dynasty Indian Restaurant, to which we returned this evening.

Pony

Dimly visible on the pavement, a couple of ponies lurked outside.

Becky, Ian, Jackie, Derrick

The food was excellent and the service friendly and efficient. The staff offered to photograph the group. A notice proclaimed that reading glasses were available for customers who had forgotten to bring theirs.

We shared onion bhajis, and an egg paratha. My main meal was ayre jalfrezi with special fried rice. Becky drank zinfandel rose and the rest of us drank Kingfisher.

P.S.

In order to highlight Gordon Le Pard’s important comment I append it here:

‘I, Like my brother, know Brock and its watersplash well. But on another note, here is a game you can try to see how historic a high street is. You will soon notice that, however modern the shop fronts are, they are all about the same width. If you pace it out you will find that they are about five paces wide, or ten or fifteen. This is because when the street was laid out the Saxon or medieval surveyors used the measurement of a rod, 5½ yards to lay them out.
The measurements remain as one of the most difficult things to move is a boundary, unless you own the lands on both sides, which is the origin of the two and three rod (pole or perch) width shops.’

71 comments

  1. Enjoying the high life, I see. 🙂 As long as we’re talking about things that are old, I was just figuring out that my shower curtain is about 20 years old. I think I just saved the planet. 🙂

      1. I do, as well. It struck me when I realized that what I consider Main Street in a community, is often officially called by another name. In Tallahassee, it’s Monroe.

      2. Nana’s right: you get places in UK referred to as e.g. Manchester’s high street (with no capitals) meaning its main business/shopping street (from back when it was a smaller settlement) which may bear a different formal streetname. Fore Street is the equivalent in the West Country, and there are other variants up North.

  2. That is a lovely stretch of High St – I love the awning over the Butcher Shop – they all had those when I was a child. Pre-frigeration days! The Knots, Knits and Crafty Bits would have been visited by me for sure!!

  3. Nice to see local businesses thriving. So much more variety in many ways and the profits stay in town … where evidently there is a mild little brook that could use a bridge? When do they close the road, I wonder, and how much current is there in the ford when it rises? Kind of neat it’s still running over the road.

    1. Thank you, Lisa. There are many such fords in the forest. I don’t think the roads are ever actually closed, although flood warning signs abound. It is left to drivers’ common sense.

      1. Interesting. Where I grew up someone gets swept away every year by water they thought they could drive through on a road. But new water on the road is different than a regular ford (which people would judge differently). I’d probably annoy people by getting out of the car and having a look when the water was higher than normal. It’s kind of nice to have that reminder of nature, in both gentle and ferocious incarnations, flowing over the road; a kind of ‘look, you still have to deal with this in spite of all your advancements.’

      2. I’m sure I’ve crossed Brockenhurst ford when it’s been dry, but usually it’s deep enough that I’d think twice about ploughing through. I’d wait for another car to check how deep it actually is! The water is rarely fast flowing though, certainly not enough to impact a car sideways on.

  4. Oh heavens, now there is a memory lane. Having spent my senior school years at what was Brockenhurst Grammar school – Hampshire went comprehensive the year after I started so there were no years below mine, we all siphoned into the sixth form – I know this rather well though in truth we spent more time in the Railway, now the snakecatcher or some such shite and the gloomy little dive opposite whose name escapes me (pupils avoided the Rose and Crown as the preserve of teachers ). We called the ford the Watersplash – is that still the same. Cross country runs were always sent through there. And is the football club on the corner still?

    1. Ah, but if you tied one end to the doorpost, you’d be able to track it back to the entrance when you had to leave! 😉

  5. I feel my town isn’t too modern and seems cozy and homey, while still festive with greenery. Sometime soon, I really was going to feature the windows of 3 downtown antique shops, one calls itself a “mall.” Two have vendor stalls or sections with main checkout, one or two clerks. I enjoyed the beauty in the older style shops and the pictures of yhe “ford” in the road, Derrick.

  6. Like my brother, now Brock and it’s watersplash well. But on another note, here is a game you can try to see how historic a high street is. You will soon notice that, however modern the shop fronts are, they are all about the same width. If you pace it out you will find that they are about five paces wide, or ten or fifteen. This is because when the street was laid out the Saxon or medieval surveyors used the measurement of a rod, 5½ yards to lay them out.
    The measurements remain as one of the most difficult things to move is a boundary, unless you own the lands on both sides, which is the origin of the two and three rod (pole or perch) width shops.
    Try it the next time you are wandering down an old high street.

  7. As has been noted in another comment, what you call “High Street,” we call “Main Street” in the U.S. Unfortunately, many of our Main Streets, even in rural Maine, have suffered the same fate as your High Streets. How lovely to see a High Street that is not only intact, but is also selling things that local people want to buy. (In Maine, many of the Main Streets, especially on the coast, are basically rows of gift shops. I like gift shops as well as the next person, but a Main Street needs other shops, too.)

  8. I love street walks like this – you find all kinds of neat things and for me there is a comfortable feeling of familiarity about it.

  9. Ron says he remembers the Vicar of Brockenhurst being washed away in the water splash during similar conditions. It was years ago but he can’t remember exactly when

  10. How fantastic to see a High Street still ‘in action’!. I so remember the High Street in the town I was born and grew up in (Bridgwater in Somerset) as it was back in the 60s and 70s. So changed on my last visit in 2011! Warm feelings of nostalgia – great memories stirred by your photos! Thank you Derrick!

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