...the children used to get a jelly baby when they went in the shop
Carol
But when we came out of, where Nana’s backyard would have come up, that would have been near the fire station side of it and I know there was, when we went to the shops, there was an alleyway and we used to sneak in that way and I can remember one of the shops, Somersides they called it, and it was a confectioner’s.
When I used to go shopping, I would have been about 10, 11, 12 year old and yes, I remember some of the shops. There was a butcher’s. Yes, can’t remember the name of it- was it Federation Meat? The children used to get a jelly baby when they went in the shop. From that side you would walk down past the Dun Cow and on the right-hand side you’d have Pyburns and Cawthornes. Yes. They had the dips. One had the dips and the other had the pies. Yes, and Cawthornes had the pies. You’d get the pasties, the pasties that didn’t have much meat in, more potato, but they were very, very nice. But you’d walk down there and then you’d cross over the road and there was a Meadow Dairy there, now I can remember that! Come down there and then into Crow Tree Road and it was on the other side to the leisure centre. Duncan’s I thought was further along because they used to sell the giant ginger snaps and I can remember getting those. Kennedy’s were further along on the corner and it was nearby Kennedy’s and Brechner’s were there as well. When I was little, I don’t know why I bought a little box of buttons and they were mother of pearl and I still got some of them somewhere in a little treasure box. I had the plates and everything because they used to sell old plates, cups and saucers and things like that on the ground. I used to rake around it. There’s still some shops like that.
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Townscape Heritage Scheme collection