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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Thursday, 9th September 2010

 
The story of Chennells
PHOTOGRAPHS of delivery vans used by Hemel Hempstead’s Chennells wholesale grocers in the late 1940s have stirred up some stories from the descendant of one employee.
Nigel Elborn’s granddad worked as a delivery driver for the company his whole working life and always had many a tale to tell.
He drove vans around the town delivering fruit and vegetables from leaving school in the early 1900s through to his retirement in the 1960s.
Henry Elborn, known as Harry to friends and family, raved about his job to his grandson despite some of the conditions he worked in.
“He used to put potato sacks around the bottom of his legs during the winter because there were no heaters in the van and the cold air used to blow through,” recalls Nigel.
“He loved his job. He was always in his van,” he added.
Chennells used to operate from 31 High Street where the Volunteer Bureau and Cobbett and Keen are based today. The 42-year-old used to visit his granddad at his Alexandra Road home every day after school where he would hear stories of the past.
One thing Harry was always very proud of was the fact that his van was one of the first in the country to be fitted with pneumatic tyres says Nigel.
“That’s what he always told me. Whether it’s true or not I’m not sure,” he said.
“Vehicles used to have solid rubber tyres but these were the first to have inner tubes which meant they could be pumped up.”
Nigel, of Hobbs Hill Road, Hemel Hempstead, thinks the pictures shown were taken just after the new tyres were fitted in the late 1940s.
His granddad left the pictures to his family when he died in 1973 in his late 70s.
THIS article was published in the Gazette, and as a result we heard from a member of the Chenells family.

A descendant of the popular Hemel Hempstead family business Chennells wholesale grocers has come forward to tell her story.
Denise Chennell - (the name lost the s along the years) is the great great granddaughter of business founder Albert James Chennells.
She contacted the Gazette after pictures of Chennells delivery vans appeared in the Heritage section last May.
She never realised how huge the business was until reading about it in our paper and has only recently discovered that her great great grandfather was also a local dignitary.
“I didn’t know he was such an important man, a civic dignitary. I just thought he was a wealthy shopkeeper,” said Denise of Brambling Rise, Hemel Hempstead.
Mr Chennells started his own grocers from premises in the Old Town High Street - now occupied by the delicatessen Cobbett and Keen - in 1869.
He had been an apprentice at the same shop for 10 years being trained by grocer Luke Lewin before taking over the business himself.
He expanded the grocers into a flourishing wholesale and retail business which attracted customers from all over Dacorum. And business boomed so much he had to invest in delivery vans and employ drivers to make deliveries to customers for miles around.
As well as running the most successful wholesale grocers in Hemel Hempstead, Mr Chennells was also heavily involved in local politics.
He was a member of Dacorum council for 19 years, and became mayor and high bailiff of the borough as well.
He died in 1923 aged 79 and in his obituary in the Gazette newspaper he was described as ‘the father of our local parliament.’
The article paid tribute to a man who ‘championed entirely for the welfare of the community and his actions were always inspired only by the desire to benefit the town of which he was a citizen in the truest sense of the word.’
Denise, now the only remaining family member left in the town, was born and grew up in London where her family name has always been Chennell without the s.
She moved to the town in 1989 and has been catching up on her family history ever since.
She is still learning all about the grocers business and never ceases to be amazed by its popularity.
“Whereever I go when ever I say my name people always ask ‘are you connected to Chennells grocers?’
“It is amazing really. I always knew it was a successful business but I didn’t realise it was such a big shop. It had four vans!”
It is not known when the business eventually closed down.
Denise, who has never married and does not have children, thinks it is great shame that the family business has not continued.
“It is sad in a way that it has finished and it is even sadder that not many of the men in our family had boys to continue the family name and keep the grocers up and running.”
 
 

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