Framptons, High Street, Ringwood

Image: © Peter Facey Taken: 23 May 2006

Beneath the name it says "Established over 150 years". It was certainly there in the 1950s when I was a boy, but in those days, before the advent of supermarkets, it was the premier grocers in Ringwood. My mother would go into the shop to order groceries for the week, and they would be delivered later in cardboard boxes by Frampton's lorry. It was Ocado without the internet. The staff stood behind a flat counter upon which there was a pile of greaseproof paper (about 2 ft x 3ft) for wrapping things. The groceries were behind them on wooden shelves; the customers never touched them. Items would be fetched, or weighed out and packaged up, and the price totted up in pencil on the greaseproof paper. At some stage I think the Frampton family sold the business and it now sells pet and garden supplies. You can walk out of the back of the shop onto Meeting House Lane. Later http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2544975

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