Sadly missed? Blasts from the past - A reminder of Stafford's past

[staffordjas]

Joe Ellis opp the old library. Bought my first proper fishing rod and my first gun from there. Spent hours perusing the goods through his window.

Joe Ellis was my mums cousin.He had the pet shop where Rooneys Barbers is now and a sports shop the other side facing the library somewhere around where IGS is now. I remember my parents splashing out on a Hockey stick for me, that they couldn't really afford, because I had made the school hockey team............didn't go down well when the next day the teacher decided I wasn't good enough to play for the team after alland it ended up never used !
Also remember buying my nans budgies off him.

Watching a film that mentioned the old 'Feather cut' the other day reminded me of the days John Henrys travel agent , on Bodmin avenue, Weeping Cross, used to be John Henrys barbers in the front half of the shop and a hairdressers at the back. He did the best hair cut I've ever had !

 

[basil]

Who remembers Charles Clarkes Garage on Gaol Square? Better still who can still remember any of the other shops located there?

Bowens shoe shop, Stafford Refrigeration .....how come there's a 'd' in fridge ?........

 

[staffordjas]

Who remembers Charles Clarkes Garage on Gaol Square? Better still who can still remember any of the other shops located there?

I remember Charles Clarke garage being there , as well as taking our shoes to Bowens to be repaired.

Also remember a cake shop on Gaol square which we used to visit each easter. My nan would buy us massive chocolate easter eggs iced with our names and icing flowers and chicks .

Was there a skating rink somewhere nearby as well?

 

[Gramaisc]

Was there a skating rink somewhere nearby as well?

The old Catholic Church in St Patrick's Street was used as a roller skating rink into the 1950s.

 

[BigD]

I obtained that picture of the old Charles Clarkes from this web site http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/default.asp a very interesting site with load of old picture covering various subjects.

 

[Sir BoD]

 

[Withnail]

The belisha beacon and pylon made a comeback at least.

 

[staffordjas]

The old Catholic Church in St Patrick's Street was used as a roller skating rink into the 1950s.

Must have been in the 60's that I went roller skating somewhere around Gaol square area of town. Seem to remember it as being somewhere more towards where New Look is now,but could be completely wrong

 

[John Marwood]

I remember Kingston Hill when it had a quarry and a golf clubhouse and not much else

 

[Gramaisc]

Hi,

This is just a message to let people know that sadly my uncle, Bob Picken, passed away on 2nd December. If anyone is interested in paying their respects, please let me know and I'll pass you the details of the funeral.

He will be greatly missed.

I've just come back from Bob's funeral and what a nice do it was.

I can vouch for the services of Alison Kirkham - http://belovedcelebrant.co.uk/funerals/ - and have made a very tentative booking, just in case...

I took Bob's copy of The Science of Flight with me, as it was sold on the basis that could have it back if he ever got called up to the Fleet Air Arm again.

 

[flossietoo]

I remember going roller skating somewhere on Clell Road, too. I'd have put it lower down towards the windmill, behind the gasometer. I only went once because the noise, confined space and crowds alarmed me. Nothing changes.

I miss the old market, with the arcade entrance featuring a lingerie shop from which I always turned my face in extreme embarrassment. Through those big glass doors (were they really Lord of the Rings-style tall, or was it just that I was short?) and in to the market hall selling china seconds, American Tan tights, books and bags. And wool...a huge wool stall where I spent countless bored hours as my mum chose patterns or wool.

Virtually everything we ever bought came from the market. Certainly all the food, except what was delivered weekly from the butcher and Bowels the geocer in Gnosall. My memories of the place go back to when I was in my pushchair, reaching out to wipe a snotty hand on a woman's fur coat, while I was parked behind my mother at the fruit stall. I like to think I would do the same thing today.

One of the first things I learned to read was the poster about the Colorado beetle that was stuck on the wall by the side exit.

I hope that we will not have to add the Shire Hall to this thread.

 

[arthur]

there was a shoe shop in goal square - can't remember the name of it. They used to sell cherry coloured shoe polish which my mum to buy to shine our shoes.

 

[flossietoo]

The shoe shop was in a row with the butchers' shop which had terrifying eels at child height in the window. There was also a pet shop which had tortoises in the window. I was desperate for a pet tortoise. I borrowed every book on the subject of tortoise care that the library could provide. Aged about ten, I could probably have gone on Mastermind answering questions on tortoise ailments.

The shoe shop seemed to be a strangely undisturbed relic of the past. My mother, grimly determined to render me ever more peculiar looking, once bought me a pair of brown suede sandals found behind a cabinet in the shop, bearing some kind of sticker indicating their wartime vintage. All the other girls were wearing bloody wedges. One more reason why, when a Forumite says "Oh, Flossietoo, surely I must have known you at school," I go very quiet.

 

[John Marwood]

I believe Joe Ellis is survived by his son Mark , a journalist on The Times

Cherry Blossom polish was popular with skinheads

The old market cafe reeked of buttered toast, until margarine was invented.

I was once employed to break biscuits in the back of an Austin van between Uttoxeter and Stafford

 

[Withnail]

terrifying eels

 

[darben]

I was once employed to break biscuits in the back of an Austin van between Uttoxeter and Stafford

The broken biscuit stall in the market, my mum always managed to bump into somebody she knew there and gossip for hours and hours about the most boring thing she could think of.
My favourite place at the market was messing with the buttons at the haberdashery stall whilst my mum would stand there and gossip for hours and hours about the most boring thing she could think of.
I seem to vaguely remember lots of dead rabbits strung up everywhere around the market.

 

[tek-monkey]

My main memory is pigeons!

Of the market that is, not of life in general.

 

[age'd parent]

The second hand comic book stall by the toilets is the one part of the old market that really sticks in my mind, mum nattering for days, while I scanned all the comics to find just the right one that I could buy with my penny, the dandy beano and hotspur, are always associated with the smell of wee for me.
But missed? No not really.

Tthe one bit I do miss is the shirt stall on the right near the upstairs cafe,from 18 years old I had a really cheap new shirt every friday and chuck the old one under the bed eventualy my mother found them a did "wasting money speech" them made me wash them all, I didn't buy a shirt for years after that

 

[Sir BoD]

For me, I have three abiding memories.

• Being sent by work to pick up the bacon butties from the upstairs café
• The joke stall, which would have pretty much been where the O2 shop is now. Smiffy's joke cigarettes, whoopee cushions and silly putty!
• A little later on, my mate had a job on one of the meat stalls, where we would congregate after doing the 'crumpet hunting' rounds about town. We would give him the low down on any girls we'd met, so when he finished his shift, he could join up with us with full knowledge.

If we didn't go to town from about 1pm until the shops shut, it would have been a poor day.

 

[kilmaccumsey]

Patoulie oil