'when We Were Young'

A Memory of Dorchester.

‘I remember when’ - yes, I remember market day in Dorchester very well – when your picture was taken I was 10 years old, and could well have been one of the children in your picture. On Wednesdays, during school holidays Mum took my brother and I to Dorchester on the bus and we would go'‘into town’ first to do the weekly shop.

This photograph shows South Street (facing south) where they also (and still do) had stalls selling vegetables everyday - Dorchester Market itself is still held in Weymouth Avenue, which is approximately half a mile from South Street.

I think the stall holder was called Neville (Trevitt?), the lady could well be his wife. I also recognise the gentleman on the right with the cap, I think he was someone 'important in Dorchester' in those days, but his name escapes me, he must be now long gone, 54 years later!

On leaving school at 15, I work in 'Boots the Chemist' which is the dark-looking building with the sun blinds on the right of the picture, the stone building next door - if I remember correctly - is the Antelope Hotel which is also still there.

My father worked on the opposite side of the road for Shepherd and Hedger (which is out of the picture), they sold 'posh' furniture, and were also the local undertakers (as they were called in 1955).

I married and lived in a caravan in Dorchester, Neville used to give me old wooden orange boxes to burn that kept me, my husband and later on my two young sons warm during the cold winter months, as money was tight, a bit like the present climate we are in now.

I still visit Dorchester regularly as my elderly mother still lives there; every time I do it brings back such great memories!