Hilltop

A Memory of Eastwood.

My Grandad and Nan(Fred and Minnie Mellott) owned the Grocers Shop ON Hilltop next to the butchers,my Dad and Uncle were born there (Roy Mellott and Brian Mellott). I have lots of memories as a child stopping with my nan and grandad, especially when they used to fetch the sheep and pigs in at the butchers next door and unload them in the yard, of course at that age i had no idea what was happening.I can remember walking to the swings with my uncle and going to the sweet shop further down the road,and playing in the entry and yard with the outside toilet down the bottom of the yard with orange wrappers hanging up on a string from the shop to use.I also used to play down the cellar under the shop ,i remember it being cold and smelt of damp, they used to keep the bananas there. In the back of the shop was an old range and oven my nan used to cook on, and it was always on and very warm in that room. the kitchen always smelt of fresh celery and wet fish ,which were kept in buckets to sell each morning when grandad had been to the fish market and fruit market. He used to let me serve in the shop and use the old wooden till, it wouldnt happen nowadays .
if anybody has any photos of school pupils in Eastwood in the 1940s i would love to see them.