Mill Street 1950's

A Memory of Macclesfield.

My Aunt, Lily Hewitt, owned a 19th century greengrocer's shop down on the left side of this view. She and her Husband Frank (who died in the 1940's) had run the shop from well before WWII, and went most days to Manchester Market for fresh produce. She lived above the shop and opened at eight each morning. I used to spend a week of the summer holidays with her and remember well the smell of fresh fruit and vegetables that permeated the building, mingled with the smell of bread and oatcakes baking in the next door bakers (Jackson's I think) it was great for a young boy.

The clatter of the wooden clogs of silk workers coming home and returning to work from the Mill at lunchtime is a sound now completely vanished, along with the silk weaving industry itself.

Lily retired in the early 1960's, and moved into a former silk weavers cottage where she spent the rest of her days. Sadly the original shop was demolished in the mid '60's and replaced by another shop of the same size and shape.