Billy Gaunt’s Shop, Church Street, Needingworth

History of Billy Gaunt

Looking Back on a Village 1875-1975 has some reminiscences about Billy Gaunt’s Shop.

We always used to patronise that as the nearest shop to go for sweets … he also sold a concoction that he made himself with some diabolical instrument he kept out the back. It was called ‘Monster’. I think it was meant to imply that it was a big bottle, but you could put a different meaning on the word ‘Monster.’ It was a fizzy drink that he made himself, he’d got a carbon dioxide pressure thing out the back … When you took the stopper off it nearly blew your head  off … you practically needed a bomb disposal squad to get the bottle open … You used to get a large bottle – about a pint – of green stuf, or red stuff, or yellow stuff, for a penny…