Shops In The Broadway

A Memory of Newbury.

I believe this picture is of the local post office/deli next door to the clock tower inn pub, affectionately known as the 'Clocky'. I grew up in this pub between 1956 and the early 1970s.

When I lived here the mayor of Newbury was Mr A W Luff and he owned the post office/deli next door. His son David did the weekly grocery deliveries in their van. David's sister moved to Canada ages and ages ago. My younger brother and I would sometimes go with David on some of the deliveries and once we went to the Heinz (soup) mansion where for the first time I ever saw a lift inside a home!

Opposite was Wilcox's fruit and veg shop and a newsagents. On the corner was a flower shop.

The actual clock tower in the middle of the Broadway had bench seats around and a phone box in the centre, where I remember it used to smell of urine. The old tramps and meth drinkers would sit here and in the old, old, days the local fox hunt participators would gather here with their barking, excited hounds, drinking sherry and tooting their horn before taking off for the hunt.

Around the corner on Oxford Street was the Queen's Hotel and the Bacon Arms Hotel, opposite Martin and Shillingsworth garage and then further up was the public footpath that led into a field that went down Speen into Northcroft Lane and the local swimming pool.

In Northcroft there used to be a stream where you could catch tadpoles and the annual fair was held here. This was a big deal because not only could you get brilliant fish and chips, toffee apples and candy floss but the rides and entertainment were excellent, and all our friends would gather here.

I have so many wonderful memories of growing up in Newbury ...