Cinderford Square

The Square 1964
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I was born in Cinderford in 1962 and lived there until the mid 1980s. Through my childhood the town centre around the Square (now called the Triangle!) was busy and prosperous with all sorts of shops, my favourites being Woolies for my huge Airfix collection and James (now Merretts) for comics, toys and Standard fireworks. It's sad to see the town centre run-down now, my mum and sister still live there. However I accept it was partly due to me and many friends from that generation moving away to get jobs that directly contributed towards this, Catch 22 I guess. I moved as my job at Ranks (Xerox) was in doubt, they'd just started running this main local employer down, my friends had to move to get teaching jobs. We all still have family living local though and really enjoy occasional get togethers in our old local, The Miners. The shops in the centre of this pic behind the War Memorial (still there of course) were demolished in perhaps mid-late 1960s for road widening. I was very young but do remember walking past the pile of rubble and finding a big metal key that fitted my clockwork Hornby tinplate trainset (I still have both). The shop on the corner immediately behind the van was David Drew's shoeshop. I remember as a small child going through the side door (behind the van) which led to steps down into their cellar/storeroom, it was neck deep(to me!) in empty shoeboxes and we were allowed to take these for our Bonfire Night firebuilding. This was a great event in my childhood, held just below our house in Parragate on Bilson Green (now built-on), 10 minutes walk from this photo. Everyone from the road, plus family friends, took part, it was a really nice community event. A huge and long-burning fire (smouldered for days) with loads of proper home-cooked hot food & drinks plus of course the fireworks, not the "mines" we have today but still great fun. I remember my mum being burnt on the ankle by a Jumping Jack (a firecracker you laid on the floor, befire they were banned). And afterwards my sisters and me sharing the bath to get rid of the smoky smell for school next day. Great days.