The 1950s And Early 1960s

George Street c1965
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I lived in Hopwas from 1952 to 1964 and attended QEGS from 1955 to 1962.

These street scenes are very familiar to me. I found the town very 'small', not so much in size but in its cultural and intellectual dimensions. I remember there wasn't a single bookshop in the town then, except for a paperback bookshop next to the Palace cinema, just up the street on the left in this picture. So I could hardly wait to get away to college and then to work.

But going back regularly now to visit my mother in Twycross, and driving along the re-aligned A5 to the M42, observing the view across the retail sheds and vast car parks that occupy what was once the Castle Pleasure Grounds and Gardens, I despair at what the planners, councillors and time have done to the place.

In mid 2008 I walked around the streets with an old pal who also remembers the place from the same period and he, too, shares my opinion that the town is now a monument to ignorant, incompetent and short-sighted administration over the years. The town is an ugly mess, bereft of charm and character; ignorant of its past and a warning of a bleak, soulless future. As far as I can see, nothing in the intervening years has made any improvement to the place.  At least as it was, it was human in scale. There were obviously pleasant, if urban, living areas, places of recreation and also quiet repose. I proposed to my girlfriend in the gardens between the bus station and the Midland Red garage. It may have been an anonymous place back then but at least it felt like some sort of home town. Now it appears to be an icon of bad planning, poor construction, inadequate maintenance, low expectations, ugliness, cheapness and a complete surrender to the new religion of the late 20th century, shopping. Shopping, that is, for unnecessary tat. It's practically third world.