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spent in Brentford" |
I have seen so many changes here and a lot of the thing's that have
changed are supposed to be for the best and for the future but
I may be old fashioned to still like the old Brentford that I grew
up in so this is why it gives me so much happiness to look up the
Brentford web page and to sit back looking at the picture's and reading
of past times and all the happy past memories come flooding back.
I was born in Greet Rd and lived there until it was pulled down in
1973 I was so happy living there. We had a long back garden with a
nice apple tree. When I was a small child my Saturday morning job
would be to black lead the black grate in our kitchen with black
shoe polish and a red type of stone to redden the hearth. My hands
were dirty with shoe polish but seeing it gleam afterwards made it
seem so worth while. And as we did not have a bathroom it was so
nice every Sunday night to have a hot bath in front of the bright
glow of the flames in the black leaded grate. My brother who was
much older then me used to have his bath at the Brentford baths in
Clifton rd he used to go off with his bath towel under his arm and
come back looking fresh this is what a lot of people living around
the area did if they didn't have a bathroom in their house. Friday
night was fish and chip night. So mum and I used to go round to the
fish shop opposite the Pottery Arms pub there was always a big queue
of people waiting to be served it used to be the meeting place for
us all we had a good laugh chatting to each other and used to hear
all the gossip for the week. My little niece Pearl and myself used
to collect all the empty coke and limeade bottles and take them in
to the sweet shop at the top of Greet Rd and collect three pennies
a bottle and go to the chip shop and get three pennies worth of chips
with cracklings on top that was all the cooked batter left over from
the fish. My mum used to get our meat from Nuns the butchers that
was opposite Pottery Rd. My mum also did her weekly shopping in Mr
Drapers the local grocers shop in Popes Lane at the top of Netley
Rd I remembered watching Mr Draper slice the bacon and cut the
cheese with a thin wire and it used to amuse me to watch him make
a sort of funnel with thick paper to put the sugar or currant's in.
There was only about four cars in our road at that time so everyone
used to use all the corner little stores which were so friendly and
had a helpful service for the customer's. A walk to the Brentford high
street with my mum, sister Joyce and my little nieces Pearl and Carol
it was such a nice walk on the way we always stopped and looked in
Rattenburys window at the jewellery which used to sparkle in the light.
And to Simmons the bakers shop where we would buy a few delicious cream
cakes to eat on our way along the Half-Acre. We had so many shops to
look at there was Whites the hardware shop that sold a lot of nice items
such as pots and pans and nice little gifts that were cheap which I
always brought with my pocket money for mum on her birthday's. There
was a nice little shoe shop called Bakers where we brought our shoes.
We had a good selection of shops plus a Woolworths, which was so cheap
and cheerful, and my niece and myself were always guarantee a little
something brought from the store. I mustn't forget the little wet fish
shop that my mum used to buy the Kipper's for our Saturday night tea
they tasted so nice with butter. There was Stone's the men's
outfitters where we brought dad a new shirt. We often shopped in David
Greggs but there was always a queue there and I loved looking at the
beautiful tiles on the wall while waiting to be served. The most
interesting memories I have is when I was about four years of age
going in to Mcllroys the drapers shop in the High street and watching
the shop assistant putting your money in to a little tin and fitting
it on to the wire above your heads and it would go all along to the
another shop assistant that would give you back your change and this
little tin on wire would come all the way back to you and would make
a little noise like a bell ringing I really use to look forward to
going into that shop that has now be taken over by a firm called
Motorwise. And one more shop I mustn't miss out was the little clothes
shop that sold ladies clothes it was a few doors from the Beehive pub
and a old lady called Mrs Brookes used to serve in there and she had
loose false teeth and all the time you was in her shop waiting to be
served you could her teeth going clunky clink clunky click because
they were too big for her mouth, you could buy zips and cotton in there.
It was only the other day that I wanted to buy a zip for my skirt and
there was nowhere in Brentford I could buy one. I don't know whether
any one reading this remembers the little Maypole girls and boys that
always danced around the Maypole on the 1st May, most of them lived in
Bedford Rd and the Maypole was decorated with all coloured ribbon's and
the little girls had lovely lace dresses with coloured ribbon on them
that flew about in the wind it was such a lovely sight and some thing
to look forward to every year I do hope that anyone that used to dance
around the Maypole at that time will write in. it will be nice to hear
from them. The last happy memory was of my dad coming home from work
he used to be a barge builder at Clements and knowling in the High Street
every dinner time he used to push home a big wheelbarrow and after his
dinner he put my niece Pearl and me into the wheelbarrow and push us up
to the end of Ealing Rd. Pearl and I did laugh and enjoy ourselves it
was only one of the small things of our childhood but it was still great
fun at that time.
Photographs of Brentford
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