Shopping and Trading (2)
So we abandoned the Co-operative Movement (see http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/pioneers.htm ) under the influence of the Plymouth Brethren. About them, more tomorrow.
But local business ruled. Just across the railway bridge was Baylis’s Builders yard and Ironmonger, catering to small jobbing builders with sand, gravel, cement and timber, and to the neighborhood with paints, stains, small tools, nails and screws etc.
“Maurice” (pronounced the English way as “Morris”) was in charge. He was a bit diffident, but was most helpful to me when I decided to re-paper our “middle room” when Mum and Dad were on a holiday.
I had never papered before, but had watched my dad and knew how to start that first sheet with a plumb line. My effort was “not bad” for a first-timer (I am guessing that I was in my late teens or early twenties), and Dad was unusually complimentary when he and Mum returned home.
Across from the Builders Yard was “Rossiters”, the Draper. There one could buy knitting supplies, “notions”, fabrics and paper patterns, needles, thread etc. Mum and my sister Maureen knew how to make a dress or skirt from a pattern which they pinned out on the fabric, and sewed together with our “Singer” treadle operated sewing machine.
The intersection of Devon Road with Bruce Road and Alpine road had four establishments. On one corner “Chelsea Gospel Hall”, home of the Brethren. On another “Evelyns” - the best fish and chip shop in Bristol (of course). On pay day in the summer we might have a treat of Fish and Chips (Mum always wanted haddock), and eat it in our back garden as we listened to a harmless radio “soap opera” - “Meet the Huggetts”. Evelyns was sold and became one of the first Chinese owned "takeaways".
On another corner was “The Kings Arms” an “Off Licence”. “Off Licenses” were allowed to sell beer and spirits for consumption “off the premises”. They also sold sweets and chips and some basic groceries. We would rush there if we heard the rumour that they had “penny bags of crisps” - basically the grease-laden bits left over after frying at the Smith’s Chips Factory in Brislington.
On the last corner was a Grocery store run by Mr. and Mrs. G.
Mr. G was not careful with his hands when pubescent boys were around - so “nuff said”.
Stepney Road was across the street from our home, and there lived Mr. and Mrs. Thorn who dealt in coal. (Their coal-yard was elsewhere). Mr. Thorn and his men would deliver one hundred weight (cwt) sacks of coal - through our house and into the coal bin in the garden.
At the top of Stepney Road was the man who re-charged accumulators, and round the corner from him, on Prospect Place (an ill-named Street as there ever was one, as my brother Martyn said the other day) was “Bedford’s Dairy”.
They delivered milk from electric floats, and I would “help” Pete Bedford. He was the one who took me to the Abattoir. Next to Bedford’s was the post (mail) sorting office for our area. And back at the intersection of Prospect Street with Devon Road was a greengrocery owned by Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox.
Root vegetables and dried peas were the order of the day in winter, and later in the year we could get cabbage, brussels sprouts and other green leafy vegetables. Memories can mislead but I still reckon that the first spring peas (in their pods) were the best ever.
English apples, pears, red black or white currants, together with gooseberries and loganberries would be available in the summer.
Bananas, oranges and grapes were of course imported. When my friend Jeff Davies saw a sign advertising “seedless grapes” he said “that’s silly, how do you know that they are seedless until you eat them”!
Further south on Devon Road was our local ‘pub - “The Whitehall Tavern”. It was “tied” to George’s Bristol Brewery and beer would be delivered in wooden barrels, let down into the cellar with ropes.
There was a sweet shop, (known as a “Confectioners”) nearby, and across the Street was Mrs. Higgins Grocery Shop where we traded post-Co-op. We could run up a weekly “tab”, but when that shop began to “go down” (so to speak) Mum decided to get her groceries from George Matthews’ shop on Whitehall Road.
Mrs. Higgins sent Mum a very sad note, pleading with her not to move to another shop, but it was too late.
Mum had previously been disdainful of George (he was a bit of a ladies’ man, a bit of a poser) but now he became the best thing since sliced bread. He delivered our groceries on Thursdays (or Fridays) on his way home to Westbury-on Trym.
Next to him was a sweet shop, run by a gentle Scottish couple. There we would be sent on Saturday evenings to buy the weekly treat of “slab toffee”, liquorice allsorts, “Everton Mints” (with a chewy inside), “Murray Mints” (too good to hurry mints); sherbet lemons; Fry’s “Crunchie” Bars, and “Turkish Delight”, “Maltesers", and if we were flush, a box of “Dairy Milk” or “Quality Street” or “Cadbury’s Roses” chocolates.
Then there was Les Groves Butchers, and across the Street an Herbalist. (With a window filled with vials of colored water and advertisements for “trusses”).
Along the road was Haines’ Newspaper shop (when I got my first pair of long trousers at about aged 14 or 15 I trotted off to show them to Mrs. Haines). Brother Martyn remembers this store as being owned by “Phil Windmill” who bought it from the Haines’s.
A bit away on Church Road was Moreton’s Butchers where we traded for many years. One of their staff (a family member?) was Plymouth Brethren - a good enough reason to trade there. There I would trot (say aged 10 - a very good little boy) on Saturdays to get eggs, bacon, a roast for Sunday, and maybe “best end of neck of Lamb” for the Saturday lamb stew.
Later my Mum decided that Les Groves was “alright after all” and we got our meat there.
There was also a bit of light industry in our area. You’ve heard about Packers’ Chocolate Factory and the Abbatoir. As well as those the Co-op had a bakery near St. George’s Park, and a furniture factory on Whitehall Road.
Not far away on Victoria Road was a factory which made bra’s and corsets (my sister Maureen worked there for a while), and a cooper’s yard where they made wooden barrels the old fashioned way.
By Chalks Road and Whitehall Rd was a company which made machines for the paper industry "Strachan and Henshaw" That word "Strachan" - hard enough for young children, was pronounced "Strawn". It's an Irish name.
“Down the Netham” on the Feeder Canal was the Butler Company where they processed and heated tar (what a lovely smell), and “St. Anne’s Board Mills” and "Mardon Sons and Hall" which made paper, cigarette cards and cartons for W.D. and H.O. Wills tobacco company.
I am getting there. The Plymouth Brethren” tomorrow.
But local business ruled. Just across the railway bridge was Baylis’s Builders yard and Ironmonger, catering to small jobbing builders with sand, gravel, cement and timber, and to the neighborhood with paints, stains, small tools, nails and screws etc.
“Maurice” (pronounced the English way as “Morris”) was in charge. He was a bit diffident, but was most helpful to me when I decided to re-paper our “middle room” when Mum and Dad were on a holiday.
I had never papered before, but had watched my dad and knew how to start that first sheet with a plumb line. My effort was “not bad” for a first-timer (I am guessing that I was in my late teens or early twenties), and Dad was unusually complimentary when he and Mum returned home.
Across from the Builders Yard was “Rossiters”, the Draper. There one could buy knitting supplies, “notions”, fabrics and paper patterns, needles, thread etc. Mum and my sister Maureen knew how to make a dress or skirt from a pattern which they pinned out on the fabric, and sewed together with our “Singer” treadle operated sewing machine.
The intersection of Devon Road with Bruce Road and Alpine road had four establishments. On one corner “Chelsea Gospel Hall”, home of the Brethren. On another “Evelyns” - the best fish and chip shop in Bristol (of course). On pay day in the summer we might have a treat of Fish and Chips (Mum always wanted haddock), and eat it in our back garden as we listened to a harmless radio “soap opera” - “Meet the Huggetts”. Evelyns was sold and became one of the first Chinese owned "takeaways".
On another corner was “The Kings Arms” an “Off Licence”. “Off Licenses” were allowed to sell beer and spirits for consumption “off the premises”. They also sold sweets and chips and some basic groceries. We would rush there if we heard the rumour that they had “penny bags of crisps” - basically the grease-laden bits left over after frying at the Smith’s Chips Factory in Brislington.
On the last corner was a Grocery store run by Mr. and Mrs. G.
Mr. G was not careful with his hands when pubescent boys were around - so “nuff said”.
Stepney Road was across the street from our home, and there lived Mr. and Mrs. Thorn who dealt in coal. (Their coal-yard was elsewhere). Mr. Thorn and his men would deliver one hundred weight (cwt) sacks of coal - through our house and into the coal bin in the garden.
At the top of Stepney Road was the man who re-charged accumulators, and round the corner from him, on Prospect Place (an ill-named Street as there ever was one, as my brother Martyn said the other day) was “Bedford’s Dairy”.
They delivered milk from electric floats, and I would “help” Pete Bedford. He was the one who took me to the Abattoir. Next to Bedford’s was the post (mail) sorting office for our area. And back at the intersection of Prospect Street with Devon Road was a greengrocery owned by Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox.
Root vegetables and dried peas were the order of the day in winter, and later in the year we could get cabbage, brussels sprouts and other green leafy vegetables. Memories can mislead but I still reckon that the first spring peas (in their pods) were the best ever.
English apples, pears, red black or white currants, together with gooseberries and loganberries would be available in the summer.
Bananas, oranges and grapes were of course imported. When my friend Jeff Davies saw a sign advertising “seedless grapes” he said “that’s silly, how do you know that they are seedless until you eat them”!
Further south on Devon Road was our local ‘pub - “The Whitehall Tavern”. It was “tied” to George’s Bristol Brewery and beer would be delivered in wooden barrels, let down into the cellar with ropes.
There was a sweet shop, (known as a “Confectioners”) nearby, and across the Street was Mrs. Higgins Grocery Shop where we traded post-Co-op. We could run up a weekly “tab”, but when that shop began to “go down” (so to speak) Mum decided to get her groceries from George Matthews’ shop on Whitehall Road.
Mrs. Higgins sent Mum a very sad note, pleading with her not to move to another shop, but it was too late.
Mum had previously been disdainful of George (he was a bit of a ladies’ man, a bit of a poser) but now he became the best thing since sliced bread. He delivered our groceries on Thursdays (or Fridays) on his way home to Westbury-on Trym.
Next to him was a sweet shop, run by a gentle Scottish couple. There we would be sent on Saturday evenings to buy the weekly treat of “slab toffee”, liquorice allsorts, “Everton Mints” (with a chewy inside), “Murray Mints” (too good to hurry mints); sherbet lemons; Fry’s “Crunchie” Bars, and “Turkish Delight”, “Maltesers", and if we were flush, a box of “Dairy Milk” or “Quality Street” or “Cadbury’s Roses” chocolates.
Then there was Les Groves Butchers, and across the Street an Herbalist. (With a window filled with vials of colored water and advertisements for “trusses”).
Along the road was Haines’ Newspaper shop (when I got my first pair of long trousers at about aged 14 or 15 I trotted off to show them to Mrs. Haines). Brother Martyn remembers this store as being owned by “Phil Windmill” who bought it from the Haines’s.
A bit away on Church Road was Moreton’s Butchers where we traded for many years. One of their staff (a family member?) was Plymouth Brethren - a good enough reason to trade there. There I would trot (say aged 10 - a very good little boy) on Saturdays to get eggs, bacon, a roast for Sunday, and maybe “best end of neck of Lamb” for the Saturday lamb stew.
Later my Mum decided that Les Groves was “alright after all” and we got our meat there.
There was also a bit of light industry in our area. You’ve heard about Packers’ Chocolate Factory and the Abbatoir. As well as those the Co-op had a bakery near St. George’s Park, and a furniture factory on Whitehall Road.
Not far away on Victoria Road was a factory which made bra’s and corsets (my sister Maureen worked there for a while), and a cooper’s yard where they made wooden barrels the old fashioned way.
By Chalks Road and Whitehall Rd was a company which made machines for the paper industry "Strachan and Henshaw" That word "Strachan" - hard enough for young children, was pronounced "Strawn". It's an Irish name.
“Down the Netham” on the Feeder Canal was the Butler Company where they processed and heated tar (what a lovely smell), and “St. Anne’s Board Mills” and "Mardon Sons and Hall" which made paper, cigarette cards and cartons for W.D. and H.O. Wills tobacco company.
I am getting there. The Plymouth Brethren” tomorrow.
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