Early 1900s - End terrace cottage called Parahiba, built 1901 with sloped-roof, lean-to annex attached

End terrace cottage Parahiba - sloped roof lean-to replaced with flat roof shop which first opened in 1914

1930s - Parahiba with flat roof shop and telephone sign, telephone lines and a motor car

In the beginning…

There was one shop in Wrabness and it was in Rectory Road. It was attached to the end terraced cottage called Parahiba which exists to this day and is diagonally opposite what used to be the Black Boy Public House. These terrace houses were built by JW Calver (Trevor Harvey’s great grandfather) over several years.

1893 – Hope Cottages

1896 – Nildesprandum

1901 – Parahiba to which he attached a ‘lean-to’ building with a sloping roof - see top left photograph

1914 – JW Calver replaced the lean to building with a flat-roofed extension in which he opened a shop and post office. An enamel sign inside the shop proclaimed ‘Prevention of Consumption Act’ ‘Members of the public are requested to refrain from spitting in this building’

As well as being farmers and running the shop the Calvers also ran a coal business – the office was in the back room of the shop. .

1914: JW Calver died the year the shop opened. His wife Harriet Calver took the shop/post office over and ran it with her daughter Grace Harvey (nee Calver – Grace had married William Harvey in 1910).

On the RHS was a pine counter from which goods were sold
Flour and sugar was kept in wooden bins and scooped into paper bags as needed
Sweets were loose in heavy glass jars
Biscuits were kept loose in large square tins
Cheese was cut with a wire from a circular, muslin-clad slab
The Post Office work was carried out behind a raised part of the pine counter where postal orders and stamps were dispensed

1934: Harriet Calver died but her daughter Grace Harvey continued to run the shop/post office.

A phone was housed in the lobby at the back of the shop and a large sign hung outside ‘You can telephone from here’

1950: Grace Harvey died but her son Albert Harvey (Trevor Harvey’s father) and her daughter Joyce Hockley (nee Harvey) continued to run the shop/post office

1950s: Albert Harvey (Trevor’s father) built new business premises alongside his house at 15 Station Road and moved the shop and post office there. It was run by his wife Florence (Trevor’s mother) and their daughter Pam. Albert also had a second job as a porter at Parkeston Quay

Cash Stores in Black Boy Lane

In 1928 (approximately) Mr Curle opened a shop on the corner of Black Boy Lane which is where the community shop now is. Many people owned this shop before it closed in the 1980s, the last being Mrs Jones. The shop then became a residential bungalow. It had several owners after Mrs Jones one of whom was an Elvis Presley fan and re-named the bungalow Presley, a name it retains to this day.

Around 1950 - Cash Stores - note old car, white van, sign on the Black Boy pub and unpainted picket fence

1960s - Cash Stores - note picket fence has been painted white

1970s - Cash Stores - note station building and sign on Black Boy pub showing a ship