6 Kingsway Parade

206 London Road, Hadleigh

Kingsway Parade 1950s

Chris Worpole

Advertisement 1953

Crafts at 6 Kingsway from a 1964 postcard

2016 Moores and the Knitting Emporium

2019 Toast Tanning and the Nail Lounge

The terrace used to bear the date 1935, presumably when it was built.

The earliest history of this later divided shop unit is presently unknown.

In 1937, Geoff Choppen ran a ladies hairdressers at number 6 with Howard W Sutton, a wireless supplies dealer at 6A.

The entries in the 1939 Register for 6 remain closed, but Harold, a gas fitter, and Adeline Dibble were at 6A.

In the 1950s, Percy Worpole and his son, John sold sanitary ware seconds as Ware Traders at 6 Kingsway Parade.

In 1964, a postcard appears to show the name “CRAFTS” over number 6 and toys can be seen on the forecourt.

In more recent times, it became subdivided with Moore’s Shoe Repairs for many years on the left hand side and The Knitting Emporium on the right.

By 2019, it had become Toast Tanning and the Nail Lounge.

Please add your comments about your memories of this shop unit.

Terry B

16/05/2021

My Mum and Dad, older brother and myself would have fish and chips at Tysons after going to the Kingsway cinema in Hadleigh, Essex. We lived in Thundersley and caught the bus home. I remember seeing PEPE, POLLYANNA and ICE COLD IN ALEX as some of the films. This was about 1959 to 1961. I remember Yeaxlees the clothes and draper store, Ivy Bond ladieswear shop,Turners the ironmongers and giftware, the electric showroom, a butchers, the Co-op grocery shop and separate Co-op chemist,Tysons fish and chip shop, Chalks the greengrocers and the toy shop Crafts….also the post office and bakery further along at the back of the fire station roughly. Was the butchers called Redmill or similar?
By Carol Powley [Southward] (10/10/2022)
One of the shops at one time was an Eastern Electricity show room; this of course was when it was a nationalised industry. Other shops I remember from that parade: Tysons Fried Fish Shop, Ivy Bond and Turners an Ironmongers of sorts who eventually moved over to the other side of the road
By Rob Keen (23/09/2022)
My aunt Mrs. Hilda Stroud used to work in Crafts in the early 1960s, which for this six year old made it my favourite shop in Hadleigh. I remember being taken in there to buy a Corgi Triumph Herald because I had been a good boy at the dentist while having a tooth out.
By Graham Stroud (20/06/2021)