Bennett’s II and Other Main Street Matters.

(Photo: Bennetts Hardware)

In the previous post we celebrated Bennetts Hardware being included in a Leicester Museum and Art Gallery exhibition. Even today, people in Evington and east Leicester also remember Bennett’s as a reliable Hayter dealer. Many local lawns from the 1980s–2000s were likely mowed by machines sold and serviced at Bennett’s Hardware.

Small family shops like Bennett’s were crucial in the post-war British garden machinery economy, without them, Hayter would have struggled to reach suburban customers in areas like Evington.

In the 1980s, before large DIY chains like B&Q expanded widely, local hardware shops supplied and serviced garden equipment.

Lawn mowers were sold mainly through authorised dealers rather than supermarkets. Hayter, a British lawnmower manufacturer, relied on small, trusted shops to distribute and service its machines.

The Bennett family wanted to expand their hardware shop beyond general household goods.

They saw a gap in Evington and surrounding Leicester suburbs, many residents had lawns and gardens, and few shops offered specialised lawnmower advice or repairs.

The Bennett family visited Nottingham wholesalers in the 1970s to buy stock and discovered Hayter mowers. They applied to become an authorised Hayter dealer, which allowed them to sell new mowers and provide warranty servicing.

Once authorised, Bennett’s became a focal point for lawnmower sales and servicing in East Leicester. The Key factors in their success were that there was it was a trusted family run business as customers knew the Bennetts personally. It had an on-site servicing workshop which was rare for a small shop. Word of mouth and coverage in local newspapers and newsletters (like The Evington Echo) advertised their services.

At its peak in the 1980s–1990s, the shop handled dozens of mowers per week, servicing both domestic customers and small estates. It was successful in a small shop such as Bennetts because Hayter mowers were high quality but complex, so customers preferred local service over mail-order or supermarket mowers.

Bennett’s staff (mainly Jim Bennett at the time) learned mechanical servicing skills, giving the shop a reputation for reliability. However, by the late 2000s, things began to change. Lawn mowers became simpler and cheaper; many could be repaired by customers. Large DIY chains sold machines with service contracts. The younger generation of Bennett family wanted to focus on retail and less on heavy workshop labour. So, around 2013, the formal Hayter servicing workshop ended, though Bennett’s still sold spares and advised customers for a few years afterward.

The parade of shops that houses Bennetts today has a history of its own. If you stand outside Bennett’s Hardware today, you are standing roughly where the public bar of the Horse and Groom once stood.

It was one of several historic village pubs serving Evington when it was still a separate rural parish outside Leicester. The pub existed at least into the early 20th century.

On 18th of June 1938 an important change happened, the pub’s alcohol licence was transferred across the road to a large house that was being converted into a new pub called The Cedars. The landlord, Frederick Hanson, literally closed the Horse and Groom at lunchtime and opened the Cedars that evening.

Once the licence moved, the Horse and Groom was demolished. After demolition the land remained cleared for some time. Main Street was widened as traffic increased. In the late 1950s, Leicester Corporation built a new parade of shops with flats above on the site.

That parade is the one that now includes Bennett’s Hardware and other small village shops with flats above. The licence transferred to The Cedars, which will be familiar to all residents of Evington Village. Interestingly, The Cedars was originally a large private house built in the 1830s.

It became a pub only in 1938, when the Horse and Groom closed. So, the pub effectively simply moved across the road. Historically Evington had several pubs serving the small rural population, including Horse and Groom (demolished), The Cedars (still open), Bear and Ragged Staff, Keck’s Arms and The Horse and Jockey

These pubs served farm workers and villagers when Evington was still largely agricultural land surrounding the village green.

Sources:

1-https://evingtonecho.uk/the-cedars-public-house-and-restaurant-main-street-evington-and-its-former-residents/?utm

2-https://consultations.leicester.gov.uk/communications/evington-village-conservation-area-review/user_uploads/evington-village-ca-character-appraisal–draft–2025-3.pdf?utm

3-https://evingtonecho.uk/evington-village-heritage-trail/?utm

4-https://pubhistoryproject.co.uk/2020/08/04/cedars-evington-road/?utm