Memories 2

Last week we looked at some of the memories of ‘Gill’, a Whitchurch local, growing up in the 1950s and 60s. She had lots to share about her homelife, so this week I thought we could look at some of her other memories of growing up. She remembers:

Mum and my aunt worked in a local fruiters shop, so at home we always had lots of ‘touched’ fruit and veg. Later I can remember we had Vesta Curry, Erin dried peas and Smash potato

Treats included Eldorado ice-cream bought from the Mayfair shop (was it by Bethel church?)

Holidays were always with my two aunts in Trecco Bay or Tenby. No car back then, but bus or train from Llandaff to Barry Island, Penarth baths or Ponty park

Memories of Sundays were always of Sunday School, then lunch and possibly a walk down the canal; and always playing card games after tea. Sometimes we’d listen or sing to my aunties 76rpm records

I passed the 11+ for Whitchurch Grammar and my grandfather bought me a leather satchel from ‘Mac the Cobbler’ in Old Church Road. The uniform was very expensive and was bought with help from the family from Evan Roberts in Kingsway. My sister who was older, passed to Penarth Grammar and caught the bus and train to school for 6 years!

When I was 16, I became an ‘Avon Lady’. I’d go out in my mini skirt and pvc boots and a lovely Avon sample case. I sold the lot!

I had a Saturday job in the local shoe shop in the village and my best friend sold fish in Birds. When we went out to town to the Top Rank, she always smelt a bit!

At that time, in the village there were still some houses, but I remember the shops; the toy shop, the saddler, the corn stores (for pet and gardening stuff), and of course Anstee’s the flower shop, and the Bon Marche with its amazing suction pipe system to send £s to the cashier. A friend’s house was demolished to make way for Kwiksave on the corner of Bishops Road

By the Library we had Ferda’s wool and clothes shop, Bests Fruiters, Jacksons butchers, the Malvern with its revolving sweet machine and the milk carton machine. Then there was Burleys for paint and wallpaper. You could get everything in Whitchurch

Who can forget the Monico cinema (where I went on my first date), or the Plaza, before they built the flyover, and of course the Rialto off Old Church Road?

As a child I loved the Library and can remember how it was set out with the old men in the reading room and the now antiquated card system. I use the library regularly even today

I hope all this has jogged everyone’s memories and conveys how wonderful Whitchurch is and how it shaped my formative years

What about everyone else? What shops do you remember? Do you have any photographs you’d like to share?

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