Memories Of Cannock

A Memory of Cannock.

These photographs remind me of Cannock and how it was when I was a child, ten years old in 1965. It's an odd thing to remember and I wonder if anyone else remembers the public toilets that were downstairs beneath the grandstand, at the end of the Bowling Green (opposite end to the large, white Council House). They must have been Victorian and I remember them for the beautiful, glazed wall tiles. They were looked after and always clean. I haven't been to Cannock for a long time, but when I did some years ago, think they'd been closed off. It might sound odd, but I'd have listed them, assuming they hadn't been 'modernised' at some stage. What odd things we remember!
It is such an ugly place now. I remember the Christmas lights/display in the town centre each year. We lived outside the town and my dad would drive me and my sister in on a December evening, and do a drive round for us to look at them. To me they were lovely, though they were, in retrospect, very modest. I thought the library was brilliant; red leather seats in the grown up's section and beautiful oak flooring and fittings throughout. I saw some of the great kid's Disney films of the 1960s at the Danilo. I loved the Park and especially the huge paddling pool. Then, the Bowling Green, tennis courts, Pavilion, Rose Garden and (I think) little pitch and putt course were all immaculately kept. I went to the outdoor market with my mum each week and for some reason remember the stall holder who sold only eggs and cheese. Across the road there were more market stalls, but at the top, a left turn took you into a 'posher' bit where there was a great toy shop and is where most of my Christmas and Birthday presents were chosen. Opposite the main, outdoor market was a theatre whose name I forget. There was a small delicatessen next to the outdoor market too. My dad was Polish and my mum would pop in there to buy continental sliced meats. In those times shops didn't start displaying their Christmas goods until December. I loved going into Woolworth's store (seemed huge at the time) to look at the the various Christmas goods, and toys. The sweet counter was always a favourite too. I remember going to the Shoal Hill Tavern occasionally with my parents and sitting outside with a bottle of Vimto, drinking it through a straw - had to be drunk through a straw! I went to the Grammar School at age 11 and feel lucky to have. The facilities were fantastic and well up to Public School standards at that time. Taylor's Bread and Cake shop was were we went to buy cakes on a Saturday after going to the market. So many more memories. It was a nice, little market town but like so many others got spoiled by 'modernisation' and planners with no imagination. I'm glad I lived there when I did.