Mr Tony Turner, the Secretary of the Haverhill and District History Society came to the school to give the team a talk about the town in the 1960s, when it had a population of only 5,000 compared to today's 23,000.  This Suffolk town became the new home of the Herbert company when it moved from London in 1968.  Mr Eddie Dryden, one of the company's pensioners, told the team of coming up from overcrowded and noisy London, Haverhill was a great place to bring up families.  Mr Dryden, like many of his Herbert colleagues, was allocated a brand new house with plenty of space, a nice bathroom and a garden.  It was, he said, like having a new start in the country.  There's an interview we had with Mr Dryden here.

 

As we can see from the photographs that Mr Turner brought, Haverhill was a much different place forty years ago compared to today.  It was very interesting to see buildings that we still recognise but also ones that have changed so much (such as the streets that are now the Market Place).  Fine Fare was one of the first supermarkets in the town.  Did it use Herbert scales?

 

The new Conservative Club was opened by the Chairman, Bert Brown, in 1969.  Also shown in the photograph are, left to right, Rene Brown, Alan Hepburn, Peter Dyson and Jim Herbert.

 

All other photographs have been provided by Haverhill & District Local History Group, to whom our thanks go.