Part 2 By Stewart Willerton Mc Caw

A Memory of North Somercotes.

My uncle, Lewis Clarke and aunty Gert, the butchers, had 4 children, my cousins. Gillian at the time was single and had a friend called Mac who was a pilot at Manby and when he flew over the village he would lower one wing as a wave. Then there was Gilbert he went to Louth Grammar and one day a week he would go in army uniform. Then Cheryl and Philip, they were both a similar age to us.
There were lots of people we knew, there were the Murdys, Robin and Mary, Martin Wright, Riggalls, Ian and Penny Rowston, Henry Gresham, Markams, David Harrison & Smithy, Richard Brooks, Sykes, Steel, also the Claytons boys, their yard was in Hoop End I think, next to an old pub which was closed down; its Jubilee Road now. The Tempest Gils, The Twins (Barton?) and of course Walt Stubbs, he used to hire a train and take all his pickers to London for the day. That was like a holiday to us kids. When I was 10 yrs he paid me 2 bob (shillings) a day to drive the tractor for the pickers.
In those days there was a coloured man used to come to the village selling Becks Bissell cleaning materials and because he had an accsent I thought he was shot tongued. He was the first one we had seen, so we had plenty of questions to ask mum when we got home, well, she cottoned on, and used to say "if we played her up she would ran away with him".
In 1957 Peter, my brother, went to live with aunty Did, as she got him a job with BOAC when he left school. She lived in Heston, near Heathrow Airport, which left me to empty the toilet on my own. Bless him.
I had to go to Mrs Oxbrough's at Grainthorpe every Saturday morning for piano lessons; I hated it, It was the only thing I liked about moving to Cleethorpes. She had two sons and they used to call me a nincompoop. When I asked mum what it meant she said "you must be doing well on the piano son". I didn't find out until I moved, because no one in our class knew either.

I will do a quick tour of the Front Street (Keeling Road). The lido belonged to the Lowes family before, and there was a boy at school drowned in the sand pits, I think his name was George Thomson? He lived near Tempest shop. Now the Lido, then Sprog Broddle, near Reg Daines, he had a daughter called Diane? Next, the village hall, was used for dances and films. Opposite was Abbots, they had a bad fire, their son was in our class. There was Pemberton corrugated pink shop (hut), then the Garage Barns Ice creams, The wool pack , then Peter Bus garage, he used to buy any scrap we had, so we could buy sweets; Milsons butchers, after that a bakers, It might be where Cost Cutters is now. I saw it on Google Map they are on the ball. Then Churchill Road (Reform Street) I remember Fred Rimmington standing there on the corner every night with his mate next door. Jeffrey's; there was an old man used to cycle there on a big 3 wheel bike, bigger than me, and 3 of us used to pinch it. You couldn't ride it on your own, we always got a clip for that. The Bay Horse; we moved in next door to the pub (outside toilet), because we had been to Aldershot for 9 months as my dad was ran a job for Uncle Don at the barracks. At the end of our house was Sandy Lane, Sam Boy Lambing lived down there. Then Harry Halls Barbers opposite Dr Parker, then Sid Waller's Post office; I used to go with his son and dad to Legbourn in the car to visit relations they had. Tempest's shop, now McCoy's, Google again. Rooney joiners shop; I remember his son building his house near Hubbard garage when he got married. PC Cook was next, his daughter was Susan (?) and next, Church Hall, Sunday school, Cubs - I used to like bob a job week, pantomimes, opposite Ron Appleby's he was my mum's cousin. Alma Warmsley worked there, her son was John, Coxen's fuel oils, Then Richard Brooks, his dad was a driver at Appleby's, Staintons shop, The Axe and Cleaver, and next door Flectur's chip shop, daughter Pat? Further down was "Clocky" Wardel, the only taxi in town. There was a lady called Lily Usher, she was the credit lady, every one knew her, she would knock on your door, walk in and shout Woo Woo. We would mimic her and get a clip, thats only because my mother though she was going to have to find some money for her. Now if she had written a book you would all be sitting on the edge of your seats reading that one, She was how I knew there wasn't a Santa Claus because I had to walk to her house Christmas morning to collect my new bike. I think Santa was in the pub, Christmas Eve, with the rest of the village. They all told us they went to church.

Well its nice to go back in retrospect to think about life and the good old days and in many respects they were. One thing is for sure, no one can take them off us. I would not have changed it in any way. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. If you were there at the time, please take into account I have done this on my own, and I was just coming up to 11.
Please use the comments section below for corrections, you can not offend, only clarify. Many Thanks

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