Shades of Sweet Pea
Village sweet shop turned Sweet Pea
It may have been a hairdresser’s since at least the 1960s or ’70s but the building began life as a sweet shop opened by Bernard “Bim” Martin in around 1910. Bernard (1884– c.1963) was the fifth child and second son of Charles and Emily Martin – the village school’s headmaster and his wife, who looked after the infant school. Bim was a well-known village character and comedian– regularly filling the village hall when entertainments were organised.
Bernard may have been responsible for the shop being built. The Droxford Enclosure Act of 1855 divided up the common land at the heart of the village into numerous plots for people to buy and build. The small oddly shaped plot on the corner of Chapel Road is indicated on the Enclosure Map but the Ordnance Survey map of 1910 gives no indication of a building at this junction.
“Sweet shops” usually sold much more – typically tobacco products, possibly newspapers, and various household essentials. During the First World War when Bernard was in the army, his elder sister Madge (1880–1946), who had also taught at the village school, ran the shop. Bernard’s elder brother Hubert (1882–1955) also appears to have been involved in running the shop at times.
Peter Watkins – author of Swanmore since 1940 – suggests that in 1955 when Hubert died Jack Linter took over the shop. The Linter family had started a cycle agency in the village in 1895, while also continuing the original shoemaking business of George Linter (1833–1906). They soon added cycle repairs to the offering and as the years went by the next generation expanded even further: by the 1940s Jack had added hairdressing and tobacconist to his skill set, while his uncle Edward stayed with boot-making and cycle repairs. The Linter family had operated these assorted enterprises since the 1900s from a house next door to what would become the sweet shop.
 Martin's Sweets |
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 New Road in the 1950s |
When Jack took over Bernard’s shop he continued selling sweets, crisps and lemonade. In the garden there was a Nissen hut where he kept secondhand clothes, prams and beds, while the bicycle shop – which also sold shoes and paraffin as well as providing a shoe repair service – was next door.
Older village residents remembered the enterprise well. One, Evelyn Tier, recorded her reminiscences as part of an oral history project in 1994: “You always went there with three or four objects in mind – either to go and buy sweets, then have your shoes or your bicycle repaired and get some paraffin for your lamp. It was all done by Jack Linter”.
After Jack Linter retired the shop was taken over by Peggy Abbot who ran her hairdressing business there for as long as anyone now living in Swanmore can remember. When Peggy retired her daughter Jennie took over and today it is know as “Shades of Sweet Pea” run by Debbie and her team. An apt name for what was once a much-loved village sweet shop.
If you have any memories of the Linters please send them to DEO@swanmore-pc.gov.uk so that they may be included in future updates of this information page.