Growing up in the town centre
NextBackI was born at 2 Park Road in 1944 and lived there until 1967. My earliest memories are of attending the Congregational Sunday School and going with my father to collect a new (!) Radiogram from Mr. Johnson's shop in Littleworth. The vital emporiums in those days were the local sweet shops, The Bonbon in Evesham Road opposite George Street, The Regal (?) on the outside of the bend up Front Hill and Noakes' at the junction of George Street and Silver Street (Did it actually have a name then? It wasn't surfaced.).
I remember fetching the supper beer for my grandparents in Lodge Road from the Jubilee off-licence run by Mrs. Stokes and Mrs. Richards at the junction of Ipsley Street and Red Lion Street, just up from the wonderful Miscellaneous Stores. I went to school at Back Hill, Bridge Street, Rectory Road, Bridley Moor and to the County High on the 13+ exam. While at school I worked for the Redditch Pure Milk Company and Boots chemist, doing "Granville" style deliveries on a bike with a big basket on the front and the Boots logo under the crossbar. After school in 1960 I worked for GPO Telephones down Birmingham Road adjacent to where the Fire Station is now. A certain Mr. Alan Foxall was the envy of all the engineers who drove Morris Minor vans, as he was the first to be issued with one of the new Mini vans!
