Forum

Going back to the High Street are more of David Wood’s recollections of village life in Goldenhill’s 1950s and early 1960s.

On the corner opposite the Duke was Bollington’s sweet shop, moving along past a couple of houses and you had Harry Paxton’s hairdressers, his shop was about 10 feet square with a couple of seats and a barbers chair in it.

Next door was a fruit shop, owned I think by the Marsh family and on the opposite corner was George Hulson’s fruit and vegetable shop, George was in my memory, the first shop to sell frozen vegetables.

The news agents next door was originally owned by Albert Fryer but was bought by Bernard and Joan Ault about 1958, I had a paper round with them for 2 years before I left school, they were two of the nicest people in the village and I kept in touch with Bernard for many years afterwards.

After the alleyway stood a pair of shops which belonged to the Co-op, one was a confectioners and the other a butchers.

The Horse and Jockey deserves a mention as being the home of Goldenhill Pigeon Club and was hosted by Alice Stevenson.

The next set of houses which were demolished in the early fifties, were very small, 2 up 2 down terraces, despite their size my grandparents raised my mother, her 4 sisters and 1 brother in there at number 82. After they knocked them down they built a big advertising boarding and the council put a seat there.

The other side of the entry was the post office which was originally started by a Mr Lewis, from the research I have done this office stayed in the Lewis family until it was demolished in the mid sixties. Next door to the post office was a small house occupied by a Ralph Nixon, one of my mum’s uncles.

Who can forget Billy Poole’s hardware store, if you can remember the 4 candles sketch by the Two Ronnies, that is exactly what it was like in there. He was short of nothing, sand, nails, washing lines, timber and almost anything you might need from such an establishment.

The Wheatsheaf was next door and then Caton’s butchers followed by Mrs Jones’s sweetshop. Sam Whittaker who appeared in earlier versions of this series as a beer retailer in 1912, kept the Wheatsheaf public house. He stayed there until his death in 1961 and then his son in law Len Jeffreys kept it with his wife Doll {Dorothy} Whittaker until it was demolished. Doll passed away a few weeks ago in May 2011.