If this is the store I think it is, it's not far from Princess Crescent where we lived and I used to get provisions there in 1954-57. I had a morning and afternoon paper round for Daltons Newsagent which was further up the road. Now living in Australia. Thank you for the great web site.

295 Ditchling Road (Fiveways, corner Ashford Road) is now Tilleys Stonemasons. The facade has not changed much since the photo was taken, nor have most of the other shop fronts in Fiveways.

I seem to remember the store in the 1950s / early 1960s being very dark with bare wooden floors and large, open boxes of biscuits in front of the counter where you could buy a bag of broken biscuits very cheaply - no packets or packaging in those days!

I think Roy Prentice is thinking of a different grocer's shop, namely Sheath's which was on the corner of Roundhill Road and Prince's Crescent opposite the Roundhill Tavern. It was run in traditional fashion by elderly, brown-coated, Mr Sheath and his wife and bore a close resemblance to Arkwright's store in the TV sitcom "Open All Hours", with serried rows of cans, jars and packets on shelves behind the long counter, and bare floorboards. In those distant pre-supermarket days there was no self-service; you read what you wanted off your shopping list, item by item, and Mr or Mrs Sheath would get each item off the shelves for you. Cheese - the choice was cheddar or cheddar - was cut to order with a wire, and eggs were individually checked for being addled by placing them under a lightbox. There were no frozen or refrigerated foods. The Sheaths' business was badly hit in the late 1950s when a new-fangled self-service grocery opened up just on the other side of the Roundhill Tavern, undercutting them on price and convenience, and offering frozen peas and fish fingers and S&H Pink Stamps; and the Sheaths retired and closed down the business soon after. I believe the shop itself still stands, but as I haven't been back for a few years I'm uncertain of its current status.