My memory from where I lived in Murray Road, which was where the gentleman came from, was a gentleman called Paddy Conway. Paddy used to have a fruit and veg round on a horse-drawn fruit and veg. wagon – an old and cart with a cover over the top. He had all his fruit and veg on the back. He had his horse, Kitty, he used to keep on the field by Ham House. We had fruit and veg coming round on the fruit and veg wagon.  That even continued after Paddy and the horse-drawn; there were others who did that – like one guy, Nigel Wilson, who used to carry on the tradition but with a motorised fruit and veg delivery. We used to have a baker who used to come round; milk was delivered to the door from the milkman. Those days we had no central heating but paraffin heaters so we used to buy paraffin off the paraffin man. He used to come round; he sold blue or pink paraffin. Bakers, all sorts of home delivery – not home delivery, sorry – we would go out and buy from the delivery van.

The local shops; the first shops I really remember were opposite Grey Court School, the L-shaped block of shops and flats at the top there. They were built in about 1959/ 1960. I do remember those from new. In fact, my Mum worked in one of them; she worked in what was Friar’s Pantry – that was the corner shop on the corner junction of Ham Street and Ashburnham Road. It is now a pizza takeaway but when my Mum worked there that was a lovely bakers and cake shop. I do remember one bonus – if there were any cream cakes left over at the end of the day she could bring them home.   Famously, in that block of shops there was the Blue Peter Café; that was the second shop as you would approach it from Sandy Lane. Today it is a German Pantry place [Hansel and Pretzel].   Next to it is still a food outlet which has kebabs and fish and chips. That was the Blue Peter Café and that was very famously one of local hangouts where the youth would go in there and play pin ball all day long – or be playing the juke box for hour and hour and hour. 

Was that named after the BBC programme? I’ve no idea. I know there wasn’t much to eat or drink there – coffee and the odd sandwich or cake; I don’t remember anything too inviting. We used to play on the pinball machine.  It seemed to swap between – there would seem to be a lot of motorbikes parked outside and the Rockers or Greasers would use it and another time it would be the motor scooters outside and all the Mods would be using it.

That parade of shops there – I’ll maybe come on the newer parade that was built with the Wates Estate; that is another parade of shops up by Ashburnham Road. When I was certainly younger there were several more shops in Ham Street, a lot more than there are now.  There was, near to …. As you have already interviewed, Dukie Stevens would remember these better than I do – there are several more shops along. We are now going past the library, heading towards Ham Common. There was a little cobbler’s that had been in two locations. It moved.  One was opposite what we called Dunkley’s Store and is now Ham General Store. That was the landmark store next door to a little alley called the Bench: Ham General Stores.  Everyone for generations has known it as Dunkley’s.  That was because it was owned by a gentleman called Harry Dunkley but it was famously run by his wife, quite a formidable lady, and I believe her sister also worked there, yes, the Dunkley sisters. You didn’t mess around with the Dunkley sisters. Further along, I think at one stage it was just one shop-width wide. Next door it had been a butchers then it expanded to the two shops. From my local history knowledge, what is interesting that a lot of people didn’t realise, was the place we call Dunkley’s store, on the corner of Ham Street and the Bench, had been the original Crooked Billet pub. It had been the Billet before.  There are still plans and photos that exist of it as the earlier Billet. But then a new Crooked Billet was built further along on the same side of the road, opposite where the Ham Brewery Tap is today. So of the two pubs, The Ham Brewery Tap is on the site of a much earlier Ham Brewery Tap. There was an original Ham Brewery Tap, I think that was knocked down and rebuilt in 1934 I believe, before my time, but lovely photos do exist and then literally about a year or so later, in 1935, the Crooked Billet was built on the opposite side of the road. It is where there are now a row of town houses. They were the two local pubs there.