The Parade In 1950s

A Memory of Claygate.

I lived in a flat over 12 The Parade (then a Garden Shop) until I was ten years old, from 1944-1954. Our gate was on the alley round the back. At the Hare Lane end of the alley were hung 'pig bags' - sacks where people put scraps to feed pigs (post-war, so still on rationing!). The other end of the alley went through to one of the brickyards that were then still around Claygate. A rag-and-bone man came along The Parade every week, perched on a horse-drawn shallow cart; we called him the 'Yak-Yoh man' because that was what his 'ragandbone' cry sounded like.