This is a photo of Hickson’s butchers shop, located at No. 45, the High Street. It was founded by the Hickson family in circa 1850 and run as a family business until it was closed in the 1920s. They had their own slaughterhouse at the rear of the premises, so all their meat would have come from local farms. They also opened a second shop in Newport where they traded for a number of years.
The Hickson family were a prominent family in Sherington for very many years and latterly lived in Knoll Cottage. Archie Hickson, the most prominent in Sherington, had 4 brothers and 5 sisters, was the last of the older family members to live in Sherington and is still well remembered by several people in the village – as a school governor, Chairman of the Parish Council, leader of the scout group and many other offices to the benefit of the village. Archie enlisted in the Army for the 1914-1918 conflict and served with distinction in the ‘Tank Corps’ where he was mentioned in dispatches.
Harry Hickson, one of Archie’s brothers, moved to Liverpool and worked for the ‘White Star Line’, Harry felt very hard done by when he was refused a place on the ‘Titanic’ !!!! He subsequently travelled to New York on other ‘White Star’ ships.
All of the other siblings moved away from the village, although two Hickson sisters who were born at the butchers shop still come back to the village to visit.
Norman Arnold
