Bohemia Village Voice

Did you know that Munday’s Newsagents used to manufacture radios? and make home-made sweets? When Bohemia Village Voice popped into the newsagents to find out how the ‘Bohemia Bygones’ exhibition was progressing, a lot of interesting historical facts came to light, courtesy of current owner, Terry Foord. Terry is the longest serving shop-keeper in Bohemia – he started at the age of 16 – and that was 46 years ago. “When I was young, you could get everything you wanted from the shops in Bohemia,” said Terry, “There was a better range of shops here than in St Leonards proper.”

SWEET FACTORY

It was Terry’s grandfather, Harry Munday who originally opened the shop in 1911. Things were very different then: Harry used to make his own sweets and he made his own ice-cream. In the short parade of shops in which Munday’s Newsagents lies, all the properties used to have stabling at the rear. Harry Munday converted his stable into a sweet factory. Sweets were all the rage and the shop used to open till 10:00pm to satisfy the demand. Even then, at closing time it was sometimes a struggle to get the last customers to leave.

HAND MADE RADIOS

“All the family worked in the shop,” said Terry. “And my granddad, Harry, was the first person in St Leonards to make hand-built radios – before they became mass produced. And each radio had a number of different-sized interchangeable coils which were switched over each time you wanted to listen to a different station.” After cheap, mass-produced radios started to come onto the market, Harry Munday then started to service accumulators – heavy glass jars which had to taken back to the newsagents for re-charging.

Does Terry have any plans for retirement? “Yes, only four more years,” said Terry, who plans to retire, after an amazing half a century behind the counter – just like his grandfather and his uncle who both clocked up fifty years in the shop.

And ‘Bohemia Bygones’, which Terry is organising? This will be held at Park Road Methodist Church Friday/Saturday 15/16 September. It was originally conceived as an exhibition of pictures – drawings and photographs – of Bohemia is days gone by, but the show will now include written items of historical interest. Terry has a photograph of Bohemia Cinema – where ‘Lullabuys’ pram shop was situated for many years.