Sandbach, the Grammar School c1965

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!

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!

Harmel House, High Street, Haslington. and Castleigh House

I am researching my Sims-Hilditch family tree. Does anyone remember Edwin Sims Hilditch at Castleigh, Haslington around 1931? And at Harmel House, High Street, Haslington around 1946? Are they on the Frith photos?

Edwin's and Ada's (nee Knott) son Tom Sims Hilditch's name appears on the Haslington war memorial. I believe his boat was torpedoed in 1941 - can anyone tell me more?

Haslington village Post Office

My Grandparents ran the post office in Haslington for many years (not sure how many exactly). Their names were Harry and Connie Jones, they built the business up from nothing and delivered newspapers, ran the post office and made their own ice cream which my mum always said people came from miles to buy. They were always up at 5 o'clock in the morning sorting out the newspapers and delivering them as well as running the post office.  They had three children, Nancy, Bob and Dorothy, they were all brought up in the village and helped in the shop, and knew everyone in the village with living at the Post Office. Of course the village was a lot smaller then. Across the road from the Post Office, on the corner, was a Smithy, where I can remember horses being shod and the sound of the anvil as they put the shoes on the horses.