Runcorn At Its Best ...

A Memory of Runcorn.

This is how I remember Runcorn as a young person. You could buy anything you needed from clothes to furniture, carpets, anything! The streets were wide and chokka block full of people - especially on Saturday. As a teenager, leaving school at 15 years of age in 1970, I went to work at Lunts Chemist and earned either two pounds twelve and sixpence, or three pounds twelve and six, either way, my mum let me have my first week's wage and I thought I would never see a poor day again, ha ha. From Lunts I then went to work in Calverts, my best friend Val Tildsley working across the road in Army and Navy Stores, aaah! the best memories....

Haywoods shoe shop holds particularly fond memories for me, as my mum (in her youth) worked there with her best friend. Mum was Joan Gilhooley, nee Clucas, best friend is Agnes (sorry can't remember surname). She worked there happily for years and I remember all my school shoes etc coming from that shop.

As a teenager, myself and friends would gather together on a Saturday afternoon and all pile in to the "Co-Op" Cafe to check out all the boys etc lol ... we would order a pot of tea and a toasted tea cake and see where everyone was going that night. Nip along to Boots Chemist to buy a new lipstick or mascara and then for a glass of Horlicks at the "Le Rendevous" to finish the afternoon off. Preen about at the bus station waiting  for the J9 or H31 up to Weston Village, watch all the Widnes lads get on their double decker red bus and that was it - end of another great Saturday afternoon. So simplistic yet so much fun.

The town used to buzz along all the time - even later on in years - we had the best butchers, Princes in Regent St, Johnsons, also in Regent St with there NEVER TO BE BEATEN MEAT PIES (and sausages) and of course Sherwins, who then was next to Whittakers shoe shop. There was another one also in High Street I think, always used by the men on the tugs, near the Royal pub. All of them sold quality meat and were great characters to boot! I also remember the sawdust all over the floor - I used to love it!

Runcorn was truly a great place to live in its heyday. So many shops, so many memories, I feel privileged to have had such a great childhood / teenage/ yound adult/ life there. To see it as it is now is nothing short of criminal - what on earth happened. Here's hoping it can find its former glory in the not too distant future.
Thank you for such happy memories
Sheila Bax (nee Potter, originally Gilhooley)