Thankyou for responding. I well remember the ironmongers as I would run there for my dad occasionaly to buy things. To my knowledge my parents never sold clothing, just the odd sewing accessory, the shops I remember that sold clothing and other odds and ends was Willis's and just a couple of doors down from my dads place was Mrs Griffiths, both of them very friendly with my mom and dad. It was such a close community, you don't seem to get that these days. Were you related either to mrs. Grifiths or mrs. Willis, I remember them both well?
Mrs Grifiths moved to a block of flats on the Bristol road and I remember visiting her there with my mom and on my own sometimes. She died of cancer and I remember visiting her shortly befor her death to say goodbuy. She was a lovely lady and had led quite an interesting life, kind and generous and had a great sense of humour.It was she who made childrens clothes and sold them in her shop, I can remember being given a load of fabric offcuts so I could make dolls clothes, which I used to do in my dads shop.
When I was about 11 my sister and I aquired a Valentines card and we took it to Mrs. Griffiths, she wrote it out and we posted it to my dad. Our mom did'nt speak to him for about three days ,no matter how hard he protested that he had no idea who it was from! We came clean in the end to save him and us from moms bad mood, I don't think she was happy with her friend at first but later we all laughed about it.
About 1978 I bumped into Fred in Town and frightened the life out of him! I was wearing a full face helmet and big red Belstaff bikers coat and I think he thought he was being mugged! When I got the helmet off he was delighted to see me and we chatted for quite a while, sadly I never saw him again.
I don't personally remember the people at the ironmongers just the shop, do you remember the Standard sweet factory in Woodfield road, my friends and I used to hang around the houses used by the factory that were used as packing stations for thier lolipops. We would run errands in the summer when the doors were open, for the girls who worked there and get loads of broken lolipops as a reward. I believe it relocated to Ireland in the sixties.
I am filled with nostalgia and so many memories, thankyou for bringing them back to me. I am 58 now so we may have played together at sometime, my first name is Susan I had red hair and freckles, I used to hang around with Ann Tyrrel and Elizabeth and Gareth Jones. Keep the memories flowing, S.A.Williams.