1950’s & 60’s Goldenhill “Booze, Pop & Fishing Bodies out of the Sea”

David Wood talks in this article about beverages from pop to alcohol and how local life revolved around it. David also leaves us in suspense with Mr Steele fishing a body out of the sea, come on David where did it happen and do we know anymore about the story?

Red Lion Public House where David spent his 18th Birthday

Anyway, David’s story goes, I went into the Red Lion on my eighteenth birthday and asked for a pint of bitter and the landlord Bob Whittingham asked me how old I was, he decided that I could have one pint and he would see my dad the next day to check and he did.

The public houses of Goldenhill, what a choice we had, the young boozers dream would be to have a pint in every one of them and still walk home. I tried it, failed to do it, regretted it and I am not going to embarrass myself again on these pages by going into further detail.

I can recall the smell of fresh, wet fish as I walked past Millington’s fish mongers and the smell of sawdust on the floor in the Co-op.

Mr Steele of Steele’s Fashions apparently had a sailing yacht and fished a body out the sea one weekend, such excitement for a small village.

A lorry used to deliver sacks of flour to the side of Harratt’s bakery in Wagon Road and we kids used to watch, fascinated as it was hauled up on a chain and pulley to the upstairs loading hatch.

We used to stand at the door of the pop works and watch fascinated, as the new machine washed the bottles ready for refilling. Mr Wharton worked at the speed of light applying the labels to the bottles, he swiped the label on the glue pad and applied it to the bottle perfectly straight.

Until next time, please keep reading this and the many other stories which David has written for the website.

2 comments to 1950’s & 60’s Goldenhill “Booze, Pop & Fishing Bodies out of the Sea”

  • k gaunt

    I cannot believe the red lion is going to be destroyed and turned into more reidential accomodation that we don’t meed om goldenhill, the red lion was one of the last survivors and would be great as a pub/ tea room as goldenhill has a lot of elderly residents,its no coincidence that it closed after a booze shop was opened next door and i believe the same person is responsable for the purchase and destruction of our local pub, its a shame,its the booze shop we don’t need, i mean neon lights with open signs on goldenhill, its not blackpool,the village is now an eyesore of takeaways,it looks a mess,im not being racist but these tourists make a mess of places, look at cobridge,its happening in goldenhill, we dont need our pubs turned into flats or shops, we need our good old british pubs.

  • David Wood

    I believe it is called progress, but I am afraid that this type of progress is not always good for our communities.
    The Red Lion was where I had my first legal pint on my 18th birthday, that was when the village was thriving, bursting at the seams with pubs, churches and shops of every description.
    Times change and peoples tastes change, I would love to step back in time to sample a few pints in the Wheatsheaf or the Red Lion but unfortunately we have moved on from that magical era.
    I agree that the off license shops seem to have killed off the pub trade but if you think about the cost of a pint in a pub compared to the price of a pack of cans from a shop it makes sense to buy it from the shop.
    If you want to blame someone, blame the breweries for charging extortionate rents to their tenants and although I agree with it, the smoking ban didn’t help.
    It’s crying shame that the present and future generations can’t enjoy the social life that we had, but to be honest even we didn’t appreciate it at the time.
    Dave

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