clone or home?

We often visit our local town of Hadleigh. The normal focus is to decide whether Hadleigh is a successful 'home town'; a good traditional high street with lots of independent shops and fewer chain (or clone) shops. We are all quite fond of Hadleigh; it has a certain quirkiness about it which makes it feel quintessentially English and everyone is very friendly. However, as with all these things, there are circumstances which may threaten this independent and traditional community.


It is worth considering factors such as the ongoing proposal to build a Tesco supermarket on the banks of the River Brett behind the High Street. It is also worth considering that Hadleigh is a mere 8 miles from the out-of-town retail park at Copdock. Hadleigh is also only 10 miles from the large town of Ipswich, which has a service centre serving most of north, east and mid Suffolk. However, with these factors it is undeniable that Hadleigh is still a rural setting and obviously has all the pros and cons of being such.


Importantly Hadleigh is in the county of Suffolk (not the Essex one!) and is fairly empathetic to the local government initiative of 'creating the greenest county' (http://www.greensuffolk.org/). Many of you will be aware of the transition town movement (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/) and it's aims; Hadleigh did consider joining this network but in the end decided to go down the independent route with 'Greener Hadleigh'. Unfortunately I haven't been very successful in finding a specific web page for this cause :( however, I do know that they are very good at organising events to try and encourage the participation in local food purchasing and attempts to keep carbon footprints low. 


The thing that we are particularly interested in is the production and purchasing of food products locally. Hadleigh has 2 butchers, a farm shop, a small co op, a local hardware store as well as many local hairdressers, tea shops, newsagents and so on. So, how can we see whether Hadleigh is a clone town, or a home town? The NEF (New Economics Foundation) have written a very simple, but effective, technique of establishing this (http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/images/text/FW_clone_survey.pdf). Try it on your home town to compare to Hadleigh!


Whatever 21st century developments threaten the traditional high street it is lovely to see that whichever day of the week you visit Hadleigh there is always lots going on. It is without a doubt a high street that is supported by the local community, and this is evident by the numbers entering the independent shops on a regular basis. 


I shall add some more about this at a later date....
Rachael