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The big building next to Corona was the Blakenhall
Conservative Club where my father played bowls. We lived opposite
the club and at night they would come out, all shouting "Goodnight",
"Goodnight". I thought: "I wish they would go home, the noisy
devils".
The family names I remember of people living in
Baggott Street in the 1950s are: Paskin, Rowe, Aitken, Kibble,
Heritage, Crump, Ballard, Roberts, Wise, Powell, Hopkin (later
Heslop), Reade, Rogers. There used to be an
old lady called Mrs Keys who lived opposite us. She was always
polishing her brass door furniture. Mum used to say: “Who is
going to clean it when when she’s gone?”
The baker and the milkman
would come round door to door, usually the Co-op. You would have a
number to give them to get your divi (dividend from the Co-op in the
town). Ours was 40474 - you never forget. There was a
Co-op grocers on the corner of Mason Street and a Co-op Bakery at
the corner of Ranelagh Road and Dudley Road. All the shops you
needed were available nearby. Butchers, grocers, greengrocers. Mum
would more or less do a daily shop; we had no fridge in the early
days.
A Mr Boylin lived in the
house adjoining our garden at the back. He kept pigs. We were
fascinated and used to sit up on the wall to look into the pigsty. A
pig bin was located in Villiers Street outside the Niphon works.
You could take left over food there and it was boiled up and used
for pig swill. I never found out if it was for Mr Boylin or
for general use.
At the top of the street was St. Luke's infants
school, which had an air raid shelter in the playground. Opposite
the school in Bromley Street was Nicholls Builders. They had a
large house there and a builder's yard attached. Next to them
was an orchard with an air raid shelter where the pub now is in
Bromley Street. There was also another pub half way up Bromley
Street.
There were a variety of
shops on the Dudley Road - all you would need. Butchers,
bakers, grocers and a fish and chip shop. An electrical shop,
newsagents and greengrocers (Haselocks). There was also
Brooke's cafe along from the King’s Arms. A friend of my mum’s
used to run the Grocers shop, a Mrs Anderson. My brother used to be
errand boy for her at one time. On the corner of Dudley
Road and Bromley Street was Whiles fruit and vegetable shop. He also
dealt in second hand furniture and antiques. Then, along Dudley
Road, there was Corson's, a paper shop, and a shop called Tranters.
At the top of the street was St Lukes Infants School which had
an air raid shelter in the playground. Opposite the school in
Bromley St was Nicholls Builders. They had a large house there
and a builder's yard attached. Next to them was an orchard (not
closed in) with an air raid shelter at the far end where the
Glassy Inn now is. I think this used to be The Baggott Arms for
a time. In the sixties there was a haulage firm here or
near by owned by Arthur Samuels.Mum used to say that he took his
wife out every Sunday for lunch. This was not so common in those
days. I seem to remember a pub half way up Bromley St on the right
going towards the Dudley Road (Does anyone remember)?
The Fountain Inn was on the corner of Cobden Street which was
the street after Chapel Street and Cobden Lane, then came Hall
Street, then Bromley St.. Chapel Street still exists but
the other streets were demolished when the flats were built.
Our Doctors were Robinson
and Wedderburn on the corner of Knox Road. There used to be a monkey
puzzle tree in the garden. You didn't make an appointment but
just turned up and waited for the buzzer. If you needed a
doctor urgently you would just pop up to the Doc’s and slip a note
through the letterbox. He would usually come that day to see
you. You felt as though you mattered in those days and they seemed
like a friend of the family. The receptionist was in a room behind a
sliding wooden panel which she would draw back when you knocked.
Shelley’s was the local
Chemist, with lovely wooden panelling in the shop, and a weighing
scale for babies, and great carboys up on the shelves with coloured
water, and the smell of baby talc. Mrs Shelley was a bubbly
lady with blonde hair piled up on top. Their son went to the Royal
School.
Fafnir (Fischer Bearings) ,
Villiers, Die Casting and the Star Aluminium, were all nearby. My
Dad worked at Fischer Bearings, Henry Meadows, then the Integral and
then, finally, Star Aluminium. I remember the early morning
rush hour with men going to work and marching past our house, all on
foot. The same thing happened in the evening on their return.
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