Visitors to a rural village have been left baffled by the number of shops called 'Roys' - saying it's like they have 'walked into a cult'.

A TikTok video shot in Hoveton, Norfolk, last week went viral after creator Gareth Clarke after saw at least five shops sharing the name.

The local department store is called Roys along with four other shops and a car park in the village, which has a population of just over 2,000 people.

As well as its flagship department store, the chain has a food hall, toy shop called ‘Roys Toys', a garden centre, and a DIY centre in the town.

Less than a mile away, in neighbouring Wroxham, the chain owns a petrol station.

The Roys' empire first began in 1895 when it was started by two brothers and it has slowly come to dominate the village.

Freelance creative Gareth, Clarke, 29,

who lives in London, was staying in the village with his friend Mel as he attended a wedding when he came across the business.

He said: "It was like walking in to Hot Fuzz, this small town atmosphere but it was so unsettling how everything just had the same name."

"It was something we'd never experienced, either of us."

"It was literally like we'd walked in to a cult, massively."

Local mum Eve, who was walking down the high street, said she agreed with the cult-like description of the chain.

She said: "People who aren't from around here think it's weird."

"I like the shops, it's quirky."

Gary Johnson, 52, is a shop assistant at Angling Direct – a fishing shop which is across from Roys Food Hall on one side and Roys Toys on the other.

He said: "I've got to be careful, because the building we work in is owned by Roys, so I can't really give a bad comment for it, I'm afraid."

"In general, they're a nice family business that's well-run."

"When I go and visit the stores the staff are friendly and everything."

"As for how big they are –"

it's just a growing company, isn't it?"

Wendy Timewell, 66, purchased the local hotel, The Wroxham, 10 years ago.

The hotelier said she was a ‘great big advocate of Roys', where she has shopped since she was a young girl.

The hotel buys some of its supplies, such as bread for its morning breakfasts, fruit, cleaning products, and alcohol, from the shop.

She said: "People come here, they stay at the hotel just so they can do their Christmas shopping there."

"They come back year after year just so they can go to Roys."

"I don't know what we would do without them. "

"They are the centre, the mainstay of the village."

"We're so lucky to have such an incredible shop, they sell everything."

"Almost everything you want to buy, you can get from Roys."

"They're an amazing asset, we're very lucky – you can go to buy a pork chop, gardening equipment, Emma Bridgewater [pottery], anything."

"We probably use Roys every single day."

"It's a fabulous shop, because it's small, cosy, and family orientated, you get to know the staff and they get to know you."

"It's like a massive village shop."

According to the company, Roys, which is celebrating its 130th year in business, was founded by brothers Alfred and Arnold Roy in 1895 after a village store in the neighbouring village of Coltishall became vacant.

Four years later, in 1899, its first store was opened in nearby Hoveton.

The business, still family owned, is now headed by Edward Martin Roy and Paul Roy.

Paul Roy, the company's buying and marketing director, said: "Roys' success was at least initially due to the popularity of natural history tourism starting in the late Victorian era and driven by the growth of the rail network including the Wroxham and Hoveton train station."

"This allowed the affluent to travel from far and wide to explore the Broads National Park, as Gareth alludes to on TikTok and as tourists do to this day. "

"Arnold and Alfred, the founders, recognising this, reinvested every penny they earned into the business and they worked hard."

"But there was a degree of fortune, too, in choices they made such as the farsighted buying ahead on literally boat-loads of rubber just before the first world war started, so everyone came to the little shop on the broads to buy gumboots."

"As retailing developed it was an obvious choice to create stores that catered in a more specialist way to customer's needs, such as a stand-alone pharmacy, a "White Goods" electricals store and "Miss Roy", the fashion outlet."

"All right for their time and the customers of their day or as right as we might try and customers have generally been rather kind and brought us their custom as they do today, so still we strive to provide good value throughout, better wherever we can, and never betray their trust."