29 High Street
No 29 has always been a single-storey , detached building with a rendered finish. The earliest business operating here was Ayres grocers from the 1920s. The Ayres family lived in Hauxton. Their two sons were killed in WW2 and are commemorated on the Hauxton war memorial. The eldest son Geoffrey was killed by a sniper in Hamburg on 9 May 1945, one day after the war in Europe had ended.
Unlike most village shops, Ayres were licensed to sell fireworks so got this trade from Hauxton, Newton and other villages.
The grocery business was continued by ‘Grinner’ Sergeant and his wife who also lived in Hauxton.
Subsequent businesses identified with approximate dates are:
1958 Ware’s Groceries & Provisions
1982 Harston Antiques
1993 Not Just Sweets.
1998 Harston Antiques
1999 Archers Estate Agent.
2001 Hairs & Graces
2009 Athletic Training
2009-2015. Eden’s Flowers
2013 S Cambs Osteopathy Clinic
2015 Briggs & Mortimer Estate Agents
2017-2022 Curnow & Co
2024 Rulo’s Barbers
2025 Rulo’s Barbers & Nadia’s Cafe
2026 Nadia’s Cafe
Immediately to the left of Ayres shop was Phyllis Jackson’s hairdressers operating from sometime in the 1920/30s until 1960s. Peter Elliott remembers ‘being dragged to the hairdressers for a hair cut more than once in the 1950s & early 1960s. It was a frightening experience to put it mildly! The room was dark and dinghy, that in itself sent shivers down your spine. It was always a short back and sides. Phyllis lived in Hauxton with her sister
Across the other side of what is now a parking area, there was a small shop thought to have originally been Pask’s butchers. Later it sold fishing tackle and wicks for lamps. By 1958 it was Ernie Collins decorating and hardware shop, whose grandfather was also the local painter, decorator and sign writer. He used to initially cycle around to jobs with his paint box and ladders attached then around 1966 he bought a van. The shop had a big window at the front and a door at the side. Hardware was purchased from Barretts in Cambridge and then delivered to the shop. They sold paraffin – the shop used to smell of this. They had big wallpaper books so people could order what they wanted.
The paint shop closed around 1968 and for a year or so the Fosters (who had a pub in Little Shelford) ran it as a novelty/toy shop. It only lasted about a year. Aubrey Northrop ran a haberdashery shop which may have been its last occupant before it was demolished.
If you can add more dates/businesses, please let us know.
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The Ayres owned and operated the general store there into the 1950’s, I can’t remember how old I was when they stopped. After them it was run by the Sargaents, who lived in one of the bungalows between Hauxton Gap and Pest Control ( Fisons ) . The Ayres had been missionaries overseas, but I don’t know where. The Sargaents had a daughter named Gaye.
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