After the Royal Engineer came the large plot of wasteland. A supermarket would cover it one day but in 1966 it remained a handy cut through.
The DIY shop sold tools and paint and decorating stuff. Balsa wood too, I learned from my mate Kevin.
Skinners sold TV’s, radios, records, record players and other electrical items. They also did telly rentals.
Wendy’s hairdressers: a boring shop.
International Stores is where I got sent for packets of tea or butter. In two years I’d be a delivery boy there.
Forbuoys’ customers with something to sell
routinely wrote the details on a postcard and paid to have it placed in the
door, at a daily or weekly rate. Inside, the shop sold comics, sweets, newspapers,
magazines and a few small toys. Sometimes they had a lucky dip: a bin full of
goodies submerged in sawdust. And sometimes they didn’t. Jamboree bags, with a couple of chewy
toffees and a few rock hard sweets had a surprise element too...
...a small plastic novelty, such as a whistle or a set of fangs was always welcome. Moustaches had some
amusement value but they always brought tears to the eyes when pinched in the
nostrils.
For all its attractions the most common reason for me being in Forbuoys was to pay our paper bill.
‘Please can I pay the papers for 43 Crundale Road.’
Once paid, I was given the small yellow receipt stub that they tore from
their ledger.
After Forbuoys
came the ever popular Woolworths. In
addition to plastic sandals, baseball boots, snake belts, broken biscuits and
the impressive pic‘n’mix selection, they sold sherbet
bonbons, lemon bonbons fruit bonbons and bargain bags of chocolate misshapes. And at Christmas time whole counters
were filled with decorations.
Chemist: the only interesting thing about this shop is that they sold liquorice
roots at a penny a stick.
Co-op Drapers: another boring
shop.
Bourne’s Bakers: a regular drop in for a large uncut loaf for Dad, and a medium
sliced loaf for the rest of the family.
Pearks: Groceries, little used by our family.
Shoe Repair Shop: Yet another boring shop.
Cross’s butchers: one of three butchers on Twydall Green, known for giving
sweets to kids, usually a black jack or a fruit salad.
Kevin
Garlick: “I can remember a time before they built the church
and when the shops were only one side, the ones on the Woolworths side had not
been built. We always referred to them as the old shops and the new shops.”
Spensley’s chemist: the first shop on the other side of Twydall Green on the corner of Staplehurst Road.
Barbers: Mam stopped
sending us there when it became too much of an expense. Instead she bought a
clipper and specialised in two styles; crew cut or pudding basin.
Post Office: sold newspapers and comics too.
Rix Ironmongers: Large front window
display of lawn mowers and tin buckets.
Trembeth Bakers: Rarely
used by my family as we used Bourne’s on the Woolworths side.
Dry Cleaners: a boring shop
situated midway down the steps.
Fish & Chip
shop: Rarely used by us.
Library: Used it a lot.
Shoe shop; Kemsley’s butchers; Sladden’s butchers; Brookers Fruit and Veg: rarely did I visit these shops.
Arnold’s: the best shop in Twydall, smelled of oil
and new bicycles, an Aladdin’s Cave of toys, bikes and scooters.
In that same
corner, across the passageway the child mannequins in the window of the wool shop and drapery still gave me the
heebie jeebies.
Then came the Co-op Grocers followed by Hill’s greengrocers, Threshers off licence and the good old Copper Kettle – sellers of bread and
cakes amongst other things.
And I still had my
eye on the wall; one day I’d go over it like the big kids did… but not yet.
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