NextBackWebbs Bakery fascinated me and as a young lad in pre school days I used to hang around inside (it wouldn’t be allowed now!) watching the flour being made into dough and then placed into the oven for baking. The flour used to be tipped from sacks on the first floor into great metal mixing bowls where water and yeast were added before the dough was proved.
The men working in the Bakery (20 Church Green East) were always very friendly and full of fun. One day they persuaded me that the tubular flour chute was a tent. Of course I had to go in it and when I emerged I was white in more than name! The bakers expected my Mum to let fly over the incident but as there was no harm done she too saw the funny side – I didn’t as I had to have a bath!
I also got on well with the man who drove the Webbs petrol lorry – used for transporting seed potatoes and all the other items associated with Webbs seed shop (21 Church Green East). I never knew his real name I just knew him as ‘Master’. The man who was the seed expert was a man called Foley Field and I loved to watch him weighing and packing the various seeds for sale.
I got to know The Sportsmans Arms at an early age. I used to fetch my Grandads beer from the outdoor there in a clear glass bottle with a paper stopper (that would never be allowed today either.) The Landlord was a man called Stan Clements and I always enjoyed watching him pull the beer into a long copper tun dish which was fitted in the bottle. Grandad worked in a brickyard and loved to sit at home listening to the radio whilst drinking his beer and washing the brick dust from his throat.
