Blogathon 17/23: Village industry

Continuing yesterday’s briefish look at the history of the village, and also how the centre of the village has shifted by a couple of miles over the last 1,300 years, today we’re going to look at what commercial enterprises we’ve got here. I’m not counting the small businesses that people run from their homes/garages. So let’s have a quick look at:

• The airfield. No longer an RAF Station and according to the sign outside, it is now an airport (though no commercial fixed-wing scheduled flights operate from here). There’s a fixed-wing flying school, a rotary flying school, and a helicopter charter company. There’s also an aircraft and helicopter maintenance company, and hangarage for hire
• Tucked away on the ground floor of the building that houses the Control Tower is the Chocks Away café, purveyors of an All Day Breakfast. Chocks Away is an occasional venue for a small number of motorcyclists (and a regular venue for some aviators and others)
• Situated in a new building on the airfield is an office furniture manufacturer. They’ve been there a decade or so, their previous building was demolished because it was at least 50 years old
• On the site of the former Station Headquarters, there’s a small, modern private hospital (no A&E) which, you know, you’d expect to find on an operational airfield, wouldn’t you?
• Up a lane near the site of the original, pre-Domesday settlement there’s a company which specialises in the transport of heavy steam-powered engines. I know. That’s pretty niche, right?
• Up another lane opposite that lane is a doggy daycare/dog boarding service; it’s a farming family diversifying as the farming industry crumbles. I wish them luck with this venture
• This is also the site of the only working farm left in the village
• Down this side lane and up the main lane, past the former coaching inn and set in the grounds of the manor house is a niche car dealership which specialises in the provision of very expensive cars and by very expensive I mean cars that don’t cost less than £500,000. Most of the cars in their current catalogue are POA, but there’s a really cheap 2020 Ford GT (Custom Edition) which you can have for a mere £699,975. They might throw in a tankful of petrol for that. We walk on for about half a mile and…
• We’re now standing outside the pub, and at this point we are 1.7 miles from the ‘old’ pre-Domesday centre of the village, that’s how far things have shifted. This place is what some folk would call the village centre. Pleasingly, the pub has had a facelift and is no longer horrible to look at (and definitely nicer on the inside too!)
• Opposite the pub is a small parade of shops which are currently a hairdresser, a pet groomer, the awesome pet shop, and an empty space being refurbished which, we have been told, will soon become an art gallery. Yes. Quite
• About ten minutes walk away is the Chinese Restaurant (sit down or take-away). I’m told this establishment was mentioned on Coronation Street
• Opposite is the petrol station which also hosts a mini Waitrose supermarket. Between the two you can buy expensive petrol or expensive food and drink
• Five minutes walk west is the current combined post office and general store. This is the third home of the village post office in the last hundred years. Unfortunately this post office is 1.3 miles away from the original, post-Domesday village centre, and 1.8 miles from the pre-Domesday village, so anyone who lives in these places has a heck of a walk to buy a stamp!
• There are a couple of mobile services that visit the village. A Friday morning usually sees a visit from a mobile greengrocer and a fresh fish van.

And that’s pretty much your lot which, in retrospect, does seem like a lot for such a small village. But how much of it is really useful?