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Frecheville shops


WhitbyBrian

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A good row of shops back in the 50s and 60s. I worked at Vardy’s pork shop on Saturdays from 1963-68, £sd and adding up on a bit of paper.

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Growing up in 70's my late mum worked in the Post Office for the Halls. After the post office closed, she worked at the Co-op. We used to be sent to Wetheralls for potted dog , scooped out of a bowl and into greaseproof paper. There was a little supermarket where the Admiral is now. 

We used to go the corner of the Birley and buy crisps from what I suppose was a little off licence, I think we rang a bell to summon the bar staff. 

The Chinese takeaway was already not a chippy , the owners children went to Thornbridge. The nearest chip shop was the White Heather,  next to Old Harrow. 

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‘Frecheville Shops’ of my memory was indeed, a grand and (largely) memorable  line -up of small but good quality retailers. Vardys…already referred to….a meat retailing legend. I well recall the professional and particularly scrubbed appearance of the father/son proprietors ….the younger I remember as ‘Robert’ the elder….just as plain ‘Mr Vardy’. Their meat of the highest order..my mother shopped there regularly and an aunt, virtually exclusively.

Then the bakers/confectioners a little further to the left  on the block, Wetherills (I THINK  I have  the name correct ). Shoppers of today would be hard -pressed  to find such a welcoming, clean, well laid -out bakers shop… it’s windows and internal displays framed in vintage, brown, real wood…and their gleaming glass bearing trade labels of such as ‘HOVIS’…..and a well known fruit malted loaf the maker of which now escapes me  but I well recall the contents of its waxed wrapper as being  just delicious… buttered.
I recall Wetheralls ( to try another possible spelling!) as a haven of edible delights ..specifically after a hated -visit  the adjacent barber shop, and their execution of a decidedly unwanted ‘short back and sides’ ….or, later, the US imported and increasingly popular, military derived, ‘Crew’ cut, sitting on a wooden plank chucked across the arms of the surgical looking ‘big mesters ’ chairs to stare, ( terrified at the prospect of one of the lighted tapers being pushed anywhere near my head as they were towards men customers to administer whatever horrors their fiery smoking ends delivered) on puzzling adverts stuck to the large glass mirrors …offering ‘ something for the weekend ‘ ..the ‘something’ I eventually noted were small cardboard packets sometimes furtively passed to grown up men as they paid for their haircuts….!
Just WHAT were they?!!  
The only ‘lead’ I ever found was that Id noticed, embossed on the bottoms of small thick water tumblers we drank water from at school (Frecheville Secondary Modern on Fox Lane)….yes, ….that was it ‘Duralex’! How did they get those stubby glasses into the diminutive boxes Id seen  ….and why were they handed out to certain men….at the Frecheville barbers shop?! One of Life’s mysteries I’m still trying to resolve!!! 

Anyway……we were shopping on Frecheville  weren’t we? 
……just about the next in the little parade ….the newsagents…again premises promising much better than the worst of the barbers and after my mother had paid the two bob or whatever it was for my haircut and bought us one of  epic Wetheralls delicious chocolate blocks covered in chocolate bits I flew to much better  prospects,   ….those contained in the great Eagle, Wizzard, Hotspur, Beano comics, (fireworks STRICTLY at the appropriate time of year), sweets etc. The then owners, the Emerys were the parents of twin lads ….school colleagues at FSMS. 
Now I confess time isn’t kind to memory ….and things DO get woolly for me, as I struggle with the business’s after the ‘paper shop’ so  I can only add:   
A ladies outfitters ( full size dummies or half models displaying  twin sets and ‘to the knee’ summer frocks ), Sirdar wools, cottons, thimbles  and ‘lastic. Was it a business called ‘Hawnts’…a name which rings a bell?
Then a useful DIY shop?  
Of a Post Office….I’ve only the vaguest of recollections ….but in those halcyon days …maybe we could safely assert that there MUST have been one whereas we now live in an era where we’re lucky to get the mail delivered!  
Wasn’t there an old style grocers …maybe one of the local  ‘Shentalls’ chain?
 A chippy? ….I really can’t recall but in the era I’m speaking of 60s/early 70s, I don’t THINK so, though of course I’m happy to be corrected

Finally, although separated by  a main side road ( Thornbridge ….?) the grand-looking  Birley Hotel….which might just be included in that legendary strip of retail facilities..  

Of people / personalities …the local rector  of the time, a colourful character, even just in his black cassock tied  with a leather belt ( sometimes, shorts) and on his purposeful feet, what appeared to be, army boots, striding up and down the shopping strip… his reddish Labrador dog following closely in his wake ( I can’t watch the 1980s film ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ without thinking of that  Frecheville priest ….Trevor Howard’s character being so close in appearance !)
 

As current Frecheville and Hackenthorpe residents will no deduce, if not point out, I’m far from current with my knowledge of the place….indeed having lived away from the area  for close on half a century…almost a decade of which away has been  from Sheffield itself…. I certainly don’t have a clue as to just how many shops remain there ( if any!)

Whatever, these are meant as just light snippets ….which will hopefully prompt some more comprehensive/ accurate memories …maybe from long - standing residents.

 

 

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I couldn’t argue it at this distance….but I do recall it as being a bit of an unusual spelling…( observant for a kid eh? Though English was always my strong point! ) 

Thanks

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I can't remember the name, but there was a supermarket where Admiral chippy is now. There was episode of Blue Peter where they built an igloo out of cardboard boxes. I think we got as far as nicking the cardboard boxes from the supermarket yard, but don't remember producing an igloo out of them. 

They probably spent a few months in the coal House until Dad threw them out. 

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