Living memories ... shops and shopping

"We had a lovely lot of little shops all owned by individual people. You went in with your penny - and turned it over three times before you could decide what you would spend it on. There was a shop on every corner. We had a church. We had the schools. We had the shops - and a lot of pubs. And even clothes. People say 'Oh you couldn't buy clothes', but there was Capes in Walton Street. I know it wasn't a big shop, and it wasn't fashionable, but you could buy anything. And at the top of the road was a cinema, which was then called the Scala. We even had our own undertaker, Mr Shirley. Jericho was a complete village. "

Ivy Stone. "My earliest memory of Jericho is of the dairy on the corner of Cranham Street and Albert Street. He delivered milk to the door on a motor bike and sidecar. The owner had two churns on the side car, with two measures hooked on the side, either a pint or a half pint. He used to dip in, and slop out into your jug. "When my grandfather lived in 53 Wellington Street he was called a beer retailer. In the list of occupations in the old street directories of Jericho there were a whole crowd of beer retailers. They just sold it by the jug from their own homes." John Taylor