BEATONS, MORETON IN MARSH... A NEW POEM...

The Corn Exchange, Moreton In Marsh

I must have passed it once or twice

On a summer’s day, during a family Sunday jaunt

In the 1960s, perhaps en route to nearby Stow:

An unremarkable frontage, easily missed, merely a local haunt…

I must have passed it more than thrice

On summer days to and from Dorset, a familiar haunt 

In the 1980s, my skin from the seaside aglow:

An unnoticeable frontage, certainly missed, during the homeward jaunt…

In recent times I have ventured within its dated exterior

To browse at its myriad wares, often dull and arcane

And I’ve squeezed through narrow gaps and past hunching customers

To find the unusual, the eclectic, the incongruous, the mundane…

Yet the facade has finally changed, for ‘Beatons’ is currently displayed…

Inside: a tearoom and a bookshop airy, bright and evocative;

Spacious, relaxed and open with a stone fireplace now revealed,

The menu’s fayre tasty, smartly presented and intuitive… 

Pete Ray

February 2020      

Must have passed the Corn Exchange on days out when I was a lad, driven by my uncle, or perhaps my own father. In the 1980s I drove by each summer when my kids were small and we had holidayed in Swanage and used the Fosse Way to travel back to Birmingham.

I never stopped in Moreton in those days, although in recent years I have browsed the village but the dark red painted facade of the store was never an attraction and the wares sold were limited in appeal.

Now, it’s a tea-room and well worth visiting, for the atmosphere is such that one can feel relaxed, despite the trucks rumbling along the Fosse Way and along the busy main street…

Well done, Beatons…