Show Posts
1
Worcestershire / Re: Chip shops, Horsefair, Kidderminster
« on: Saturday 19 February 11 20:58 GMT (UK) »
Hi Jim, Phil,
I'm an old git as well now, born in 1944.
I remember the grocery shop and Pritchard's grocery shop next to Maggs cafe. I bet you both remember Alf Tabb's bike shop opposite the Roadhouse. I think Alf held the world record for making and riding the smallest bike in the world. He must've been getting on in years when I was a kid and yet he'd still ride the small red one which was only about 6 inches high. He had another silver one about 9 inches high that he'd let you have a go at riding. We always went there instead of Reddings in Blackwell Street for cycle parts because it was cheaper - and he'd let you have a go at riding that bike. Never managed it though. If we were really strapped for cash, we used to go down to Jake Stubley's scrapyard in Waterloo Street for bits and pieces. Always a handy place too for getting old pram wheels to make our soapbox carts. It's a shame that most kids today will never know the pleasure we got out of making or mending things ourselves in those days.
The last time I went through the Horsefair it'd changed a lot from how I remember it. The old coal yard in the triangle's now a car park and the Empire picture house has gone. We spent many a happy Saturday morning in there in the 'threepenny crush' on the temporary wooden benches on the front row. The threepence we saved on the normal sixpence admittance charge paid for a bag of chips on the way home. I remember there used to be Howell's bakery just up Hurcott Road from the Blue Bell and on the opposite side of the road there used to be a row of old houses which lay well back from the road with a sweet shop in one of the houses. Then there was the other row of old houses with a built-up path with steps and railings further up the hill. All gone since they built the flats.
Best regards,
Gubbins
I'm an old git as well now, born in 1944.
I remember the grocery shop and Pritchard's grocery shop next to Maggs cafe. I bet you both remember Alf Tabb's bike shop opposite the Roadhouse. I think Alf held the world record for making and riding the smallest bike in the world. He must've been getting on in years when I was a kid and yet he'd still ride the small red one which was only about 6 inches high. He had another silver one about 9 inches high that he'd let you have a go at riding. We always went there instead of Reddings in Blackwell Street for cycle parts because it was cheaper - and he'd let you have a go at riding that bike. Never managed it though. If we were really strapped for cash, we used to go down to Jake Stubley's scrapyard in Waterloo Street for bits and pieces. Always a handy place too for getting old pram wheels to make our soapbox carts. It's a shame that most kids today will never know the pleasure we got out of making or mending things ourselves in those days.
The last time I went through the Horsefair it'd changed a lot from how I remember it. The old coal yard in the triangle's now a car park and the Empire picture house has gone. We spent many a happy Saturday morning in there in the 'threepenny crush' on the temporary wooden benches on the front row. The threepence we saved on the normal sixpence admittance charge paid for a bag of chips on the way home. I remember there used to be Howell's bakery just up Hurcott Road from the Blue Bell and on the opposite side of the road there used to be a row of old houses which lay well back from the road with a sweet shop in one of the houses. Then there was the other row of old houses with a built-up path with steps and railings further up the hill. All gone since they built the flats.
Best regards,
Gubbins
