112 High Street

The Clock House – A Little Cranleigh Story

As I wandered along Cranleigh High Street the other day, I found myself thinking about one of the little shops that quietly keeps the village ticking along — quite literally, as it once did.

The building at 112 High Street, now home to The Hair Boutique, has lived many lives before Rachel and her lovely team filled it with warm welcomes, hairdryers and the gentle chatter of village life.

Back in 1911, the shop belonged to Charles Ravenhill, a watch and clock maker. Imagine the windows then — not bottles of shampoo and styling brushes, but shining pocket watches, small clocks carefully arranged, all ticking away quietly as people wandered past on their errands.

By 1922, an advert in the Cranleigh Directory proudly listed a Ravenhill watch for 18 shillings and sixpence. That sounds extraordinary now — about 85 pence in modern money — though I suspect it felt rather more valuable at the time.

After Mr Ravenhill, the shop was taken over by two generations of the Howard family, who continued the watch and clock trade. For many years, villagers would have stepped through that same doorway not for a hair trim, but to have a treasured watch repaired or a clock brought back to life.

I often think how wonderful it is that buildings like this stay with us while the trades inside them change with time.

Today, instead of the ticking of watches, you hear the soft hum of hairdryers and the quiet rhythm of scissors as Rachel and her team look after the people of Cranleigh.

It is still, in its own way, a place of care.

Where once people brought their clocks to be put right, now they come to have their hair washed, trimmed and leave feeling a little more themselves again.

And I rather like that thought.

Because our High Street has always been full of shops like this — places that quietly serve the village year after year, sometimes unnoticed, but very much appreciated by those who step inside.

— A Quiet Observer in Cranleigh