2012
SO9475 : Fairfield General Stores and Post Office, 81 Stourbridge Road, Fairfield
taken 12 years ago, near to Fairfield, Worcestershire, England
Fairfield General Stores and Post Office, 81 Stourbridge Road, Fairfield
A much appreciated local facility, particularly as some of the neighbouring villages, such as Bournheath, no longer have any shops. The store includes an off-licence.
When I photographed this store and post office I was not aware that it had been the target of an attempted armed robbery in January 2009, which went horrendously wrong. Three men masked with balaclavas burst in and attempted to steal money. In the course of the altercation which followed, one of the owners' sons, aged 29, was shot dead trying to protect his father, who was shot in the ankle. The whole incident was caught on closed circuit TV and in December 2009 the three men responsible were given life sentences, which hopefully will mean the public will be protected from them for a very long time. The driver of the get away car received 8 years imprisonment. So shocked were the local community, and appreciative of the hard work of the store owners, that volunteers ran the business for a period until the family felt able to continue again.
As a footnote, in 2010 a new initiative called Open All Hours was launched in the Bromsgrove district to provide better links between the police and rural stores and help protect them against serious crime.
Image classification
(about):
Geograph
This page has been
viewed about
122 times