Herbert, 87 years old

Herbert was born just off Chatsworth Road, where he still lives.

"When you woke up in the morning you could hear the birds singing. It was a different world then. There would be bands playing on the marshes, kites in the sky and real street parties with acrobats. It might sound like heaven – it was – but we didn’t know it then. There were seven butchers – I used to get faggots, salt beef and saveloys. We did all our shopping on Chatsworth Road and had all our entertainment there too. There was no need to go anywhere else. Where the snooker hall is now was the cinema and we all used to go to the pictures a lot. Cohen’s grocery store was there, the first Tesco. There were two pie and mash shops – one was where the Chinese is now; we had a lot of dinners in there. The old post office was an electrical shop and the dentist by the school was a television shop. There were two ironmongers that sold everything, as well as a tailors, a drapers and several fish shops. The Blackhorse pub was wonderful and always busy. The market stalls used to go right down as far as Chats Palace and opposite was the Corner Pin pub where everyone went. At the market they used to make sweets – they smelt lovely."