Priestwood Square

A Memory of Bracknell.

The newsagent was called l.B.Corne and Mr Corne doubled as Father Christmas at Meadowvale School when I was a youngster. His relatives also managed the post office based in the shop. My late mother attended the opening of the shop in the '50's and came back with balloons and paper hats for me and my brothers. A lovely shop then, with model railways running in the shop windows at christmas - lovely childhood memories of the heyday of Priestwood Square and the then fairly new estate. There was also a grocers shop called Pratt's run by Mr Pratt in his white labcoat. You could get cheese properly cut on a white slab by a wire cheese-cutter and his friendly shop assistants would select biscuits from large tins and put them in a white paper bag for you. Personal service was everything in those far off days. Me and my brothers would often dash up there on Thursday nights with a shopping list after my father got paid from his building trade job as a hod carrier/labourer. The baker next door was where we went to buy our chocolate 'wagon wheels' before going on to school at Meadowvale School via the 'red hill'!