Happy Days

A Memory of Wokingham.

I went to Wescott Road school in 1950 then St Crispins 1956. I can recall quite a few shops. Herrings furniture where you could buy on HP with no checks, as Mr Herring assessed whether or not you looked trustworthy. NSS newsagents. Next door was a chemist who washed my eye out after getting grime in it from a passing steam train when I lived in Waterloo road. Baxters butchers. Cliffords dairies. Somerscales fish and chips managed by Mr Chipper, no kidding. The Redan pub. Husseys ironmongers who I did a paraffin round for after school. Other shops I worked for when still at school. Paper round for Langleys, I couldn't lift the bag until I had done 1/3 of the round with the bag balanced on the handle bars. Grocery round for Parmantier at Shute end opposite Tudor House. Then my favourite on Saturday morning was a grocery round for Earleys in Rose Street. Mrs Earley was seldom seen without a fag on.
Back to Peach Street, there was Keith Manning motorbikes, the blacksmith and then Central garage with Lynne Lewis on the pumps. We quite often popped in for a chat. She was going out with Mick Byde at the time. Still have fond memories of his brother Willy. The Welcome Inn, TSB bank, Shoe shop, Fletchers fruit and veg with Vic and Keith, Woolies, Jarmans, Imp Café, Hairdressers, David Langley bookies, Colebrooks fishmonger, Barclays, Ye Olde Rose Inn. Home and Colonial, Red Lion, Boots, Bush Hotel, Heelas department store, Timothy, White and Taylor chemist. Mustn't forget Pop Flint manager of Dewhurst butcher, Bowyer pet shop who held on and now the last independent to go and signal the end of our fabulous town. There was Bullocks ironmongers, Hopkins tobacconist, Wheatsheat and Roebuck pubs. Trills cycles, Pandoras Box, Westminster Wine co. Prudence hairdressers, Pops café which was our hang out. I stayed at Pops for a while in the front room on 1st floor with Mick Byde and Wokingham window cleaner Paddy Powell. Little known fact about Paddy is that he was a Royal Marines bandsman and at 7 in the morning he would blow reveille. Can do more but no space,


Added 22 October 2018

#670848

Comments & Feedback

Oh my goodness, this takes me right back to my youth. A lot of the shop names I had forgotten. The Rose hotel was considered very posh and also The Bush opposite. My first brand new bike came from Trills cycles...red with straight handlebars and next door was the Drill Hall where I used to go dancing in about 1955.. Freeman Hardy & Willis was where I spent my first pay packet on a pair of black very high heels. The Post Office was in Broad Street and my aunt lived at No.24 where I spent many happy days. I lived at the Church Army canteen which was run by Uncle Joe and Aunt Edith In about 1944. I also did a paper round at Langleys and got my eye washed out by Dr Kerr ? after getting soot in my eye from the steam train. My friend, Rosalind Hussey lived above the Redan pub. I went to Westcott Road school St Paul’s School and was in the very first intake to St. Crispin’s, which I loved.
I lived in a Nissan hut in Toutley Camp and from there to a brand new council house in Gorrick Square. I entered Wokingham Carnival in about 1954 and won first as The Yardley Lavender Girl. I lived in Langborough Road, snogged Army Apprentices on the Rec and went to Saturdays pictures! Life seemed so easy then. I married in All Saints Church in 1959 and moved to Woodley and from there to Sussex in 1966. I think very fondly of Wokingham. It was a great place to grow up.
So many memmories brought back,I to lived in a Nissen hut in Toutley Camp ,ours was number 29,went to Palmer school then St Crispins,my first job on leaving school in 1963 was in Toy dept of Heelas i also worked in Woolworths and Pinner and Mills wallpaper shopyou Wendy would have been at st Crispins at the same time of one of my older brothers, I wish i had photo,s to look back on the ones on here take you back,My Gran lived at the end of Peach Street opposite the Ship Pub is burried in all Saints Church,I now live in Leighton Buzzard

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