Martin's of St Mary Cray, Kent

[SussexMan]

Anybody remember the above in the 1960s? The shop was one of a few, ancient original buildings in St Mary Cray before it got a heavy dose of 'progress'. The shop doubled (I think...) as the village Post Office. Ron Chappell and John Haydon (both Orpington Angling & Preservation Society men) for a time worked the counter. I even met an old man near the shop once who nostalgically explained he had (perhaps in the 1950s/60s) constructed cane rods in the shop workshop, sweating the cane and building built cane in the orthodox manner. Bought my first cane rod and first fibre-glass rod (a honey-coloured 9 foot job for stalking chub in Kent streams...) there and early, ghastly Intrepid Monarch reel. The shop had the usual aroma of maggot dust, aniseed, varnish and linseed oil from the nets. I used to cycle there on Saturday mornings, eyes on fire for a new float or angling advice.