Description:
This picture shows the set of cottages which were situated opposite the Dorothy Boot Homes. It is a shot showing the thatched roof actually on fire, which, according to Robert Mellors in his book 'Wilford then and Now' (1914) caught fire in 1876. The cottages were rebuilt with a tiled roof. There were six cottages here with the most northerly being the original Wilford Post office, run by Mr Marshall, before it moving to the crossroads. In the early 1920's the two cottages at the southerly end became a butchers shop for a period run by Christopher Dann from his shop on Friar Lane, Nottingham. This did not last too long but became a sweet shop by the late 1920's up to around 1960 being run first by Ida Weightman and later her brother Herbert Weightman after his retirement from being a jobbing builder. During the Second World War the three northerly cottages were hit by a German bomb and demolished. In more recent years the remaining shop became a small village grocery shop for about 20 years when competition from supermarkets made it impossible to continue.