Esso - Stalham Road, Hoveton, Wroxham, Norfolk 7th December 1977
Anyone who has ever been in Wroxham for any much time at all immediately sees just how much the Roy family dominates the village! They own the department store, the food hall/supermarket, the toy shop and even the petrol station in the present day. In total they have five stores along with the petrol station here. Still, that's much better than the village being dominated by say Tesco!
Even here back in 1977 that was pretty much the case. Technically all their stores are in Hoveton and not Wroxham, only the petrol station is really in Wroxham! The river Bure is the division between the two villages. The Roy family's first shop was opened in 1895 in nearby Coltishall, their second in Dereham and then the third was here. Their current department store is I believe the largest village store anywhere in the UK. You can read their history here
The Esso sign we see here in this era had nothing to do with them at all, but their premises did eventually expand to cover the land the petrol station was once on. The petrol station under their name now was only bought by them in 2011, it had previously been under the ownership of the Broadland Motor Company. Here's the same view in the present day.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.7121028,1.4094746,3a,75y,35.32h...
Esso - Stalham Road, Hoveton, Wroxham, Norfolk 7th December 1977
Anyone who has ever been in Wroxham for any much time at all immediately sees just how much the Roy family dominates the village! They own the department store, the food hall/supermarket, the toy shop and even the petrol station in the present day. In total they have five stores along with the petrol station here. Still, that's much better than the village being dominated by say Tesco!
Even here back in 1977 that was pretty much the case. Technically all their stores are in Hoveton and not Wroxham, only the petrol station is really in Wroxham! The river Bure is the division between the two villages. The Roy family's first shop was opened in 1895 in nearby Coltishall, their second in Dereham and then the third was here. Their current department store is I believe the largest village store anywhere in the UK. You can read their history here
The Esso sign we see here in this era had nothing to do with them at all, but their premises did eventually expand to cover the land the petrol station was once on. The petrol station under their name now was only bought by them in 2011, it had previously been under the ownership of the Broadland Motor Company. Here's the same view in the present day.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.7121028,1.4094746,3a,75y,35.32h...