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From
modest beginnings in a small shop beside the old coast road at
Dersingham, R.H.Thaxter Ltd has grown into a large and attractive garden
centre, a village supermarket and a coffee shop at the heart of the
village.
Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, its a family
business, started by Ron and Celia Thaxter, that is into its second and
third generations.
Today, the directors are sons Richard (managing
director) and Peter, together with Richard's wife, Edna, who is company
secretary, their son, James, and Ron's brother, Jack. The garden centre
is probably the largest of its kind in W.Norfolk and offers a wide range
of plants, shrubs and trees, all at competitive prices.
The business occupies a prominent site with good car
parking at Hunstanton Road, in marked contrast to the beginning in the
early 1950a from one room in a house beside the coast road, which ran
through the middle of Dersingham before the building of the by-pass.
The business was started by Ron Thaxter, who ran a
nursery on the opposite side of the road to the present site, growing
tomatoes, cucumbers and bulbs. His in-laws, Mr and Mrs George Tompkins,
offered Ron and his wife, Celia, the use of a room in their house,
because the house was too big for them.
The Thaxters started off selling general groceries,
as well as produce from he greenhouses on their nurseries. At weekends in
the summer months, they would often stay open to 11.30pm and midnight to
get the busy passing trade of people on the way to the coastal resorts,
and initially, much of the business was seasonal.
As the shop business grew, produce was bought in
rather than grown on the nursery, and the greenhouses fell into disrepair
and were taken down in the 1970s. From cucumbers, tomatoes and bulbs, the
business gradually diversified into rose bushes and other garden
products.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, a rival grocery and
garden centre was based next to the Hunstanton Road site, and competition
was fierce between the two businesses. Then around 1980, Thaxters
acquired the business next door, in the process virtually doubling the
size of their site to its present day proportions.
There has been considerable family input to the
business over the years. Ron's brother, Jack Thaxter, joined the business
in the late 1960s and was involved for many years, and remains a director
to the present day. Ron ran the business up until his death in 1989.
Richard Thaxter joined the company in 1972 and has
worked mainly in the garden centre, seeing it through several stages of
expansion.
Peter was a primary school head teacher in Lynn for
a number of years, before returning to the business in 1994.
The shop has had many extensions and updates over
the years, the latest being the introduction of a hot food takeaway last
year. It is a Spar Store, one of the larger size in the Spar range, and
as such can be very competitive on prices, comparing very well with the
big supermarkets.
Why not call in soon to see it for yourself.
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