Hall Place, Spalding.

A Memory of Spalding.

When I was very young, around 1950, Hall Place was cobbled and the fountain which is now in Ayscoughfee stood there. On market days, when it was quite busy, there used to be a little roundabout for very small children. Later the cobbles were removed and a roundabout was put in and I seem to remember that, as well as the grass, there were also flowers. At Easter every year there would be a large wooden cross in the centre. In Hall Place was Pennington's shop, rebuilt after it was bombed during the war, and sold clothes, tights, handkerchiefs etc. I can remember the bomb site as there was a wooden fence round the exposed basement with a few remaining floor joists over them. Weeds and willow herb grew all round. Next to it was the Free Press shop which sold books, paper, pens and pencils with offices behind. On the corner into New Road was Pat Mills clothes shop which had a passageway between the shop window and a small window on the actual corner and as children we loved to run through it. Next to it was Gibbs shoe shop which had an xray machine, to check your new shoes fitted, until it was decided it was dangerous. Then there was another shoe shop, and then Attons which sold wallpaper and there was that very distinctive smell of paper and paste. Further along was Hallam and Blackburns the grocers and across the level crossing was another grocers, Pearks and then it was back to Penningtons after some small shops. On the other side, left of photo were a variety of shops, Tommy Laws next to the alley into Red Lion Street. Fine Fare, Spalding's first supermarket was there, Sketchleys the dry cleaners and several others.