The Hicks electrical business started early in the 20th century with the switch of Victor Hicks away from the family trade of butcher and towards his passion for engineering and motorcycles. Victor Edward Hicks, became an engineer, serving an apprenticeship with Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies of Ipswich. Following his marriage in 1924, he moved frorn Ipswich to begin a new life in Hitcham where he acquired Alcomby House on The Causeway and started up a business selling cycles, tools and general hardware. He added a repair workshop next to the shop with petrol pumps to supply the growing number of motor car owners. Added to this were two mobile shops, which trundled around the surrounding countryside carrying everything from wire netting to seed potatoes and vinegar. These two 'shops' were known as the 'Charlie' and the 'Hector' rounds after their drivers/salesmen, Charlie Coulson and Hector Sillitoe. Amongst the bustle of 1920s trade, Brian was born in Alcomby House in 1927. Victor had introduced the first 'wireless' radio sets into the area, beginning with crystal and in Station Road, Stowmarket. This was a cat's whisker receivers, followed by sets needing propitious time as the Norfolk BBC/TV station acid accumulators. It was this part of the business that captured Brian's interest. When war broke out in 1939, he was proficient enough to build a set capable of tuning across the radio bands and could listen in to German propaganda. In 1943, he joined the Pye Radio Company in Cambridge as an apprentice and was privileged to work in the research laboratories where radar was being developed. With the technical expertise he had acquired at Cambridge, and sensing that radio and television would eventually outgrow the hardware business, Brian returned from Cambridge with his wife Cora and, shifting from the purely repair side of the business, in 1955 they opened their first retail shop outside the village in Station Road, Stowmarket. The pair jointly ran the Stowmarket shop, Cora helping with the accounts and sales, while Brian utilised his technical expertise to produce a formidable force. This was a propitious time as the Norfolk BBC/TV station at Tacolneston had just been switched on, to be followed by ITV at Mendlesham. Television sets sold like 'hot cakes' and two of the Hitcham back‑up team, Wally Ruffell and Ron Reynold were kept busy clambering over local roof tops installing the heavy and cumbersome aerials that were then necessary. Soon, demand for the modern electrical devices outstripped the capabilities of a single shop, and in the early 1970's Cora opened another Hick's branch in Hadleigh. This shop quickly grew from modest premises to occupying numbers 45 to 49 in the High Street. The two shops were one entity for a period, until Hadleigh split away to produce its own Hicks electrical haven in southern Suffolk. Bringing us up to date, Toby Hicks, Brian's son, gradually bacame more involved in the management of the shops and is now the managers for both of the stores. The Hicks family are proud of the quality of the local service and back up the company still provides and the local skills he has fostered. Ron Reynolds worked in the Hitcham repair shop, 60 years after being taken on as a boy by Victor Hicks, but sadly passed away in January 2005, leaving work only a month prior. In the face of fierce competition from multiple retailers, BV Hicks has prospered and still prides itself on providing great service along with the latest top quality technology and impartial advice.