Who remembers?
 

Who remembers
The old Accy baths and the chip shop accross the road.
Swimming in the lodges at the back of the Coppice
Collecting wood/ furniture for the Bonfire in the back streets behind the houses
Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon
The rag and bone man and the goldfish
Trickets ice cream that came in the horse and cart (the red sauce was great)
the fog that stopped everything running, the silence, and the taste of it when you had to walk home through it.
Getting the bus on Adelaide street to Blackpool at the Wakes weeks.
Sitting on 'the deck' with your mates and waiting to get moved on.
The Jaz Club - great for under age drinking

Re: Who remembers?
 

I used to swim in the lodges and remember the rag and bone man (dont know if its the same one) thats about it.

Re: Who remembers?
 

There are plenty more in the special section
Nostalgia aint what it used to be... - Accrington Web

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We must be from the same era Mrshubbard, 4 penath a chips on the way home from the baths nout better on a Friday night, and as for the Jazz club there was a thread on here about that not long ago, great days for sure

Re: Who remembers?
 

hey mother hubbard theres threads about most of that in "Nostalgia" section,have a sneck through,feel sure you'll enjoy.;):)

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also do ya remember "Who" lived across from the old baths?;):D

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I dont recall any of it:(

what is this era then?
60's?

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buggar all to do with you kids:D:D;)

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definately the 60's Thanks everyone I will jump into the nostalgia section and a bit in there.

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The only thing I don't remember was the Jazz club!

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Accrington Public Baths
St James St.

Never liked the place, could never learn to swim.

Was'nt till I was 30 odd, a doctor told me my bone structure
was too heavy, I would never be able to swim.

Retlaw

Re: Who remembers?
 

another Top picture,cheers retlaw.:)

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Can't recall Trickett's ice-cream being delivered by horse and cart. Do you mean Birtwell's? He used to blow his whistle and shout "Ice-cream here." If you ordered a cornet, he would be poised, bottle in hand and ask "With blood?"

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Sorry it was Birtwells, my memory is not as good as I thought

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the son or one of sons? drove the hoss n cart in later years, he ended up a "bouncer" at the miners on friday nights, once threw me down the stairs wi 2 of his oppos.:(

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Must have been a case of talking when you should have been listening cashy:D

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no i was " Bouncing"...............down the steps.:D

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With blood?

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It was raspberry sauce (on the icecream) - but then I think you knew that :)

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not a great deal,mainly teeth.:D

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thanks for photo of accy baths we used to be first ones in the pool on a sunday morning u can just about see tho winding gear for the coalmine at the back thanks retlaw that photo brought back many times left accy 1966 to live near birmingham

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any body remember the potateo pie man used to come in a van you take a dish out and he would fill it for a few pennies he used to come round within grove

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Good old Accy baths. Many thanks for the picture Retlaw. It certainly brought back some memories.

Back in the early fifties single sex swimming except for some evenings and Sunday mornings.

Schools swimming in the mornings to teach those pupils who couldn’t swim how to swim by the accompanying teacher from the poolside. We were transported to and from the baths in a corporation bus for FREE as was the baths admission.

I was 10 when I taught myself to swim, sort of, after witnessing the fire brigade pull a drowned adult from a lodge. We were just messing around in the shallows as non swimmers.

Men and boys changing cubicles at poolside with 2 people to a cubicle. Women and girls upstairs.

Communal hot shower where bathers were obliged to wash first with the supplied soap, then step under the cold shower before diving into the water.

No lifeguard and only the boiler room attendant to be called if there was ever a problem.

Stone steps in each corner of the pool.

Three ‘splash’ diving board. Top splash was about 10 feet high diving into 6 feet 6 inches of water at the deep end.

71 lengths to get a mile certificate. I got mine when I was 12 and it took me over an hour.

Inter house school swimming galas once a year and also inter schools swimming galas.

Just down from the chip shop a street branched off to the left and just down that there was a ginnel that lead to a place where we could buy one penny and two penny bags of Smiths crisps. These were crisp bits but the bags were full to bursting.

My first job after leaving school and after training at Bank Hall Colliery in Burnley was at Scaitcliffe pit as a human pit pony. My job was to push a tub full of coal weighing several hundredweight from the coal face to the first chain.

At some 600 feet deep it wasn’t a very deep mine but the coal face was some 5 miles away and took about an hour to get there and an hour to get back to the pit bottom. No trains - we had to push our way along rails using what we called a sled.

Re: Who remembers?
 

i trained at Bank Hall Burnley,best job i was ever sacked from.:D loved the pit.

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Talking of the old Accy baths, anyone remember the chap who used to teach swimming when we went with the school, I can only remember his last name which was Smith. I later came accross him at Belper Street in Blackburn, we used to go for a swim in the summer when we were at the Tech. I read that he died about 18 months ago he was well into his eighties, but he was a real nice chap, and he achieved the impossible of teaching me to swim;)

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did you get a choice jaysay? i was only just behind you at the tech n was told swimming or football take yer pick,so it was no contest:D was 19 when i learned to swim.

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His first name was 'Mr' Jaysay .. we would probably never have registered his first name as wasn't polite to know somehow.. I can't remember either :D

Oh yes Jambutty, that blooming diving step thing .. nearly knocked meself unconscious a few times on the bottom of the pool with that one .. and not forgetting the belly flops .. ouch !

And ladies, that hair dryer near the door :eek: ... had to put in a 1d. for the privilege .. cost more than that though .. didn't last very long ... :(

Loved the steps though as us ladies walked down to the pool .. just like going to the ball in a grand mansion... :D

Re: Who remembers?
 

Was his first name Leslie? Someone of that name also used to run the swimming club at the old baths, and I remember his obituary sadly appeared the other year.

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We used to go to the baths back in the '50's from the High School and a Mrs Broadley used to pull us along in a rubber ring to try to teach us to swim, but she failed miserably with me, I never did learn - and there used to be black beetles in the water!

Re: Who remembers?
 

Actually Garinda ...that did come to mind ... but have some memory of Leslie Dean (headmaster at some school) .. being involved in the gala's etc.

Remember Mrs. Broadley too Accylass .. black beetles ... aaagh .. don't remember them .. least the chlorine would've killed 'em off ...yuk. Did we go for swimming lessons from the High School ? .. think maybe only the first two years if I recollect ... :confused:

Hey, did you have one of those swimming caps with collage type flowers all over them ? ... LOL.

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i went from junior school (St Johns) but not from the tech.:(

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Headmaster at the school on hyndburn road....Little plump fellow as I remember?........I think he may have been a labour supporter..........." I know what's best for you"

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...and for us chaps there was the Brylcreem machine. Whack your money in and get a blob of the white gooey stuff in yer hand. Then a vigorous rub in your hair and join the scrum in front of the mirror to get your quiff into place before emerging onto St James Street.

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He was headmaster at Hyndburn Park for many years, don't know whether he was a labour supporter but more or less sure he was involved with swimming.

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We went from St Oswalds when it was near the bottom of Willows Lane, no bus for us, we had to walk two by two in all weathers once a week. From what I remember it was a lady that taught us to swim, we had these white square floats. She never got in the water.
All the girls had to wear swimming caps, never could work out why we had to and not the boys?
Finally learnt to swim in the lodges on the Coppice with my mates. Think we used to swim near Priestly Clough as well?? not sure about that.
I remember once going to the baths after school with a friend and it was so bright in there, was there glass in the roof? and no one else was in the water, it was very strange but lovely.
Wasn't there a bath house as well for people to get a good wash?

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Thanks Rindi I remember now, as I said I saw his obit a while ago a well, he was a real nice chap, he actually learnt me to dive as well, an for a guy that was terrified of water at one time, it was a big achievement

Re: Who remembers?
 

Leslie Dean when headmaster at St Andrews used to walk us to the baths for our swimming lesson then on the way back at the bakers near the school we bought penny loafs they resembled a minature hovis what a treat
tony

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The diving boards were not the problem katex but the stone steps were. I was diving down to get a penny from the bottom near the deep end steps when a couple of lads ‘bombed’ from the top board. The wash from the ‘bomb’ swept me into the steps and I cracked my head on them. I climbed out with blood pouring from my head and seeing stars and bright lights. The boiler room attendant patched me up and sent me home with the words, “You’ll need stitches lad” ringing in my ears. He was right - five in all.

Ah! Yes! The hair drier and the Brylcreem machine. Never used either. I saved my money for crisps or chips.

I went to St. Oswalds up to 1948 motherhubbard before going to the Accrington Secondary Technical School on Union Road in Ossy. Just across the road from the Palladium cinema.

Some of the miners from the pit used to use the “Slipper Baths” on their way home from work. Scaitcliffe pit didn’t have any showers.

Re: Who remembers?
 

now interesting question maybe jambutty knows? an old mate of mine who worked at scaitcliffe once told me you could walk from scaitcliffe following one particular shaft n come out in huncoat pit, was that the case? always wondered.;)

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I remember once standing on top of the Coppice before trees were ever planted, and seeing most of the town covered in what I thought was cloud, it must have been all the muck from the factory chimneys. I stood on the top many years later, and was amazed at how green, and how much countryside there was around the town. It makes you wonder what all that muck did to us, breathing it in all the time when we were young

Re: Who remembers?
 

think it probably was detrimental to the earlier generations than us, remember those days well, but luckily i am fine, n hopefully you motherhubbard.:) we only had so many years in it, then it began to fade,but the older ones lived all their lives in it. IMHO.:)

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It’s possible because as I mentioned the coalface was some five miles from the shaft in the direction of Huncoat and there were old workings that we weren’t allowed to go into.

During training at Bank Hall we were told that many adjacent mines did have roadways leading from one to the other as escape routes in the case of a roof collapse blocking the access to the main shaft in one mine.

Most small mines like Scaitcliffe had two shafts but only one was for getting the men down and back up and also for bringing the coal up. The other shaft was a ventilation shaft that didn’t have any winding gear for it.

Re: Who remembers?
 

Can you answer a query for me? When I was very young, before I went to Paddock House School, I remember miners getting on the Blackburn buses at Church Commercial, which I got to go to West End. This must have been before pithead baths as they always had coal dust on their faces. Where was there a pit near there? I can't remember one.

Re: Who remembers?
 

Hapton Pit? none nearer

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The men who worked at Altham coke works left work blackened too.
After leaving school I worked for a short time at Mullards Simonstone and we shared a works bus with them. Their muck got rubbed off on your sleeves if you shared a seat with them

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was there not an old drift mine at altham? way back.

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As near as I can remember Blackburn didn’t have a pit. Maybe the guys that you saw weren’t miners but workers in a coal yard where domestic coal was bagged. They would get just as mucky as a miner, as would the coalman who delivered the coal to the houses. Apart from Scaitcliffe pit in Accrington there was a pit at Huncoat, one at Hapton and a drift mine at Read, then Burnley.

It was very difficult to get rid of the coal dust embedded at the base of the eyelashes. So miners would look like they were wearing eyeliner makeup. Most never bothered to try during the week.

If you tried using soap it got in your eyes and stung like blazes. We were told to use Vaseline.

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just come to me west-ender, way back there used to be barges stop on the leeds n liverpool canal in a little bay where the "Coke ovens" are situated, could it be some of the guys that used to load em? used to be a little pub just past bridge street,workers were known to frequent that.(forget name):confused:

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Weren't the Australian were it cashy, might have got the wrong name, but
Ernie Gribble was the last landlord before they pulled it down, he then moved to the White Bull, up New Lane

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nah australian was on the "Pleck" off Bull Bridge" Accy, still see the last landlady occasionally.:)

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was it called the navigation

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They'd have had a long walk from Hapton. :(

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These blokes wore white helmets with torches on the front so I think they must have worked down the pits. I'm going back to about 1949/50 and there was always about a half dozen of them waiting for the bus at Church around 4.30 p.m. I don't think they were still around in later years.

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Ya spot on DD couldn't think of it, as soon as cashy said where the Australian was I knew I had it wrong, although I remember Ernie teling me about his days in the Navi as he used to call it, sadley he's no longer with us

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I think there was also a colliery in Rishton at one time , somewhere near Walmsley St. supposedly the workings extended as far as Gt. Harwood and were responsible for the subsidence in the Park Rd. area where the houses were pulled down near to the gas works

Re: Who remembers?
 

just come across this link showing all the collierys in operation North East lancashire in 1908, surprised at the number in Accrington and Ossy
lom08lan1

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Good link Jack
seeing that Ossy had mines until 1930, I have been inspired to google more.
Wikepedia has a list too
List of collieries in Lancashire 1854-present - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have always wondered where the Ossy mines were , because on moving here 6 years ago, a neighbour who is an industrial history fan, told me that the open land around our flats could not be built on due to old mineworkings being too near the surface,

Re: Who remembers?
 

noticed it says one in ossy...red walls
where is that?

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I have found a reference to a Red Walls Farm cottage at Broadfield, so it probably took its name from that farm nearby

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I remember a farm called redwalls just beyond the shoulder of mutton nr Haslinden Old Road....The Farmer as I recall was a cattle dealer: Morris Hindle....Maybe that was the site?

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Bang on mate remember now.;) the Hapton Valley Pit Beechy or Happy Valley as it was known was in rose grove as you come up to the traffic lights it was way up on the right, if i remember correctly, was a terrible accident down it, think mid 60s?

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I have found a reference of 16 men killed:

Durham Mining Museum - Colliery Disasters 1960-69

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cheers royboy, was in fact 62.;)

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I actually think a former Labour councillor published a book on this cashy, his last name was Tootle, I know his brother Herold, he lives in Ossy this Chap lived in Springhill if I remember rightly, near Exchange Street, but I can't remember his first name for the life in me

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Hi Jambutty.

This one is for you, where is it.
It was taken in 1926 during the coal strike.

Retlaw

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When I worked on Industrial Disablement Benefit at Burnley office, I had to read many pit accident reports. It really was a very hazardous occupation.

Whenever I hear any man grumble about his job, I can't resist saying -
"better than going down the pit"

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yeh i loved it though margaret,in fact i always tell people- best job i ever got sacked from.:D

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me mam always said never go down the mine son
youve plenty of slack in your pants :confused::confused::confused:

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:rofl38::rofl38: NO Comment.:D

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Slack – tiny pieces of coal and dust.

Your mam was being ironic.

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me mum didnt know what being ironic was
in the early 60s she was passing a mother to son JOKE :D:D

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Re Accy Baths St James Street,
Don't remember the chippy but perhaps I was there before then, around 1950. Then there was a small terraced grocers-type shop almost opposite. It was like one of the houses' front rooms and was so packed with goods it was almost hard to get in. We used to buy muffins there after our swim and dig the inside out with a forefinger and eat that first, not the finger... I think that a muffin cost three-ha'pence.

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I remember the chippy well, amongst us kids the fare was refered to as "Ada's greasy chips". I have no idea if the proprietor was called Ada or not!

I also remember buying some sort of soup, veg I think it was, from a machine at the top of the steps on the way out. Not to mention the unmistakeable chlorine aroma on the way in!

The attendant once caught me diving in from the top step of the podium style board and surfacing right by the hand rail in the deep end. The sod made me swim my first length just to prove I could swim. I nearly drowned in the effort but I did it !!!

Ian

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Bless her Beechy

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I do remember going to the old baths, must have been at primary school then , remember getting peanuts out of a machine in there, remember thise manky floats and it was always freezing, back to school with wet hair eugh.

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There was a hair dryer and a brillcream machine when i was a lad, I think it was about 2 old pence for each:D

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well remember the brylcreme machine the foriegn lads of the time
used to put the stuff on their hair and then all over their faces
always thought it was odd at the time :o

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Boy that takes me back. My cousin and I used to go the the "slipper baths" on friday evening and get chips forn the chippy across the road to eat on the way home. The water was always boiling and the towels were hand towel size and like sandpaper.:eek: Happy days.!!!!!:D

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Memories, memories. I spent hours and hours at the baths when I was a youngster, had great times. I remember walking there from St Oswalds, then when I went to Paddock we had a bus take us. Do schools go to the baths now?
I think they did the best chips in accy across the road, it certainly tasted like it at 8pm on a cold wet night, (with wet hair). They used to have a Mynah bird that was a really good talker.
Leslie Dean was the headmaster at Hyndburn Park school, he once swam across Morecambe Bay. Mrs Broadley was the pool attendant, she would walk around with her hands behind her back and never seemed to miss anyone who was misbehaving, she also used to turf us out of the hot showers if we stayed in too long, I remember her beehive hairdo! Also remember going to Accy swimming club on a Wednesday evening. Those were the days.

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Wasn't there a pub on the corner opposite the baths called 'the Junction', that used to serve under agers?

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Your right JB but you were up the Junction if the police caught you in there under age:D

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and a lady called rose who used to read your tealeaves
she was very good if my memory serves me well

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John Smiths House, used to play darts fer em in 60s.;) fer a short while,but thats another story lol.

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Noticed a van on the M65 today with Palmer Riley on the sides ... reminded me that they used to be in Accrington at one time, but can't remember exactly where they were.. was it Abbey Street ? Electrical contractors.

Looks like they were resurrected as googling shows one of their two branches in Skelmersdale, established since 2004, but with 50 years experience.

P.S. The speed van was on the M65 again today, accompanied by 2 police cars, so be careful.

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i think they were top of church st
corner of wellington st :alright:

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Could be Beechy, you mean bottom of Warner Street ? .. just can't see it there .. you are probably correct. Have an image of a yellow and black sign.

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You guys fair dinkum 'bout putting sauce on your ice cream????:eek::eek::eek: YOU ARE HAVING A LAUGH (I hope:confused:)

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its Raspberry Sauce ya never lived Kiwi.:D

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Sauce here is Tomato .:D Raspberry sauce as you put it, is a 'topping'.

Glad its Raspberry, I was really concearned for you lot.:D

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not quite up the hill toward the pop club
just on the bend there was a shop just set back of the road

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i put it as its called, the name fer it.:D on the other side, i'm begining to have concern fer you Kiwis, thought ya were more educated.;):D

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It was called 'raspberry dash'

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Was it not where there building the medical centre jct of paradise st it used to be a mill
tony

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thats what the posher end of town called it.:D

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damn, I wish I was around in the 60s. I was born in the wrong decade for sure!

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yeh ya missed a great era,but would you want to be n old fart like me now?;)

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I have got the location for Palmer Riley wrong it was on electricity st I think
tony