Sandbach, Cheshire

The Square

I remember Florrie's chip shop, the chips were 6d a bag and were great. The sweet shop next door was called Timmins, and like you said, Mrs Farnsworth's shop was across the road where the betting shop is now. I used to walk through there to go to church school which is now St Mary's church hall.

Florries Chip Shop, The Square, Sandbach

Florries Chip Shop - what memories - greasy, white chips, but they were the best!  Florrie was always dressed in black - like a Victorian (which she probably was).  The shop was situated on the corner of the alley between the square and the back of the Black Bear pub. Next door (probably where the Italian restaurant is now - 2008) was a sweet shop where they would split 10 Woodbines and sell the secondary school kids one at a time and put it into a sherbert bag - can't remember the name though - I bet my sister would (Hazel Tilley).  Across the road, opposite the Saxon Crosses (where the Post Office used to be and now there's a betting shop) was Mrs Farnsworth's - three steps up to the shop I seem to remember, and it was very narrow. Wagon Wheels were very popular!

Thursday  Market Bus Trips from Bradwall

In this picture one can see the town hall in the background and next to it now is Price City (2008), prior to that the Co-op. When I was a child this building used to be the Hungerford Cafe. I used to look forward to getting on the market bus at lunchtime with my mother and going to the Cafe for a glass of orange - this was then a real treat! The corn tradesmen used to stand outside the arches in front of the Town Hall to take orders for next week deliveries. It was the days when the Co-op van, the butcher's (Wakefield's), the bread man and the paraffin man, not to forget the Corona pop man, used to deliver to our homes and we as children could get the old threepence back on an empty bottle! There was Holland's shop where Burnell's is now. We had a Co-operative drapers and tailors in Bold Street with their offices upstairs where mum used to get her Co-op divvy! You could buy anything on the market then. Buses used to come from Hanley on Potters' Wakes and I remember people queuing up for the buses home and every other person seem to have four foam cushions tied up with string to take home to the Potteries. There was Melias and Hunter's on the High Street where one could buy all the groceries There was Dickinson & Lunts hardware on the High St. Woolworth's as well. Everyone I went to school with seemed to buy a lucky rabbit's foot from there,  they had metal tops so that when we wore them we had black marks on our skin! Ugh! Woolworth's was the place to shop, they had warm peanuts for sale that we used to love, sold in a bag that ended up full of grease - must not have been an healthy option. But then neither were Florrie's fish & chips. We remember buying some one night and cutting into the fish, it just oozed grease (I think it would have been lard in those days), but you could not fault her, she was a character in her own right!

Congleton Town and City Memories

The sham castle on Mow Cop is clearly visible from much of Congleton.

Congleton Town and City Memories

The photographer was looking eastwards from the entrance. At this time, all but the uppermost section of the east window had clear glass. Stained glass was introduced later in 1922. Although not discernible in this picture (perhaps because of the glare from the windows), there are two oil paintings by Edward Penny on either side of the window, which were painted in 1748. They depict St Paul and St Peter.

Congleton Town and City Memories

Later photographs from the 1950s show no change to the building apart from the addition of a hanging sign at the front, and the replacement of the gas lamp-post with an electric, concrete one. This scene looks practically the same today. Smaller timber-framed buildings can be seen in Lawton Street, Moody Street and Little Street. Others exist but are hidden by later frontages. A few more survive in the surrounding countryside, and a couple of miles along the Manchester Road is the timber-framed Marton Church, one of the earliest and most complete examples in the country.