Barrel Organ

A Memory of Dewsbury.

The island in the middle of Market Place had a unique feature. Between the two zebra crossings on the island each Saturday was a man with a barrel organ. The music could be heard all over the town centre. You had to walk past it when you wanted to cross the road. This lended itself to the man with the organ collecting money for charities.
I used to like listening to the music and was fasinated with the organ. The people who used to shake the collecting cans scared me though. I probably thought they would take my pocket money (1 shilling) although they never did.
I used to spend my pocket money in Caddy's ice cream parlour on two scoops of ice cream whith fizzy pop in a tall glass (can anyone tell me what they were called?)
This was a real part of Dewsbury's history and my childhood recollections.
Richard Hagger