REMARKABLE TREE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE TREE

PEARS FROM THE PAVEMENT DECORATION OF A SHOP Growing out of the stone-flagged pavement and climbing the wall like a vine, a pear tree is the natural decoration of a shop in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. Forty pounds of fruit had lately been taken from it this season and 100 more pounds remain to be phjcked. The shop is a general store, owned by Mr. L. Bedford, who celebrates his jubilee as proprietor this year. Mr. Bedford calls it Pear Tree Shop, but for nearly two centuries the building was known as " The Mansion." It was the dwelling of the village in years gone by. The cellar wall still contains the huge iron 6afe in which the parish church money was kept by wardens. " Before my time, this was the village post office," Mr. Bedford said last month, " and the tree was climbing the front wall then. Nobody remembers the shop without the tree, and it has always been a fine bearer. It my wife wants a pear before coming down to breakfast, she just leans out ot- tn bedroom window and helps hersel . Travellers through the village 100 upon it as a wonderful curiosity. Travellers would also be surprised see the eighty-year-old proprie mount his bicycle, loaded with P ro sions, and set off to deliver- them customers. He was well past seventy before he gave up the habit of . a long cycle ride before breakfast . morning. " I have ridden as man - fiftv miles before breakfast, "and I etill enjoy a good long no* but later in the day, now.