The Laundry, next door, was a place of great pleasure to us kids in the winter.
It was where we could sit and warm ourselves whilst talking to Chris, the lovely old man who used to run it. He let us in as we were never any trouble... well, not when he was looking anyway :)
A boy (who shall remain nameless) used to get in a Dryer and the other lads would put 10 pence in and watch him spin.... Oh, the good old days ;)
(Nancy)
I went past this pub a week or two ago and it seemed very busy... maybe with the Bush Inn now being shut it has grabbed some custom from there. This was one of the first pubs I drank in... in fact I got caught drinking under age in here .... I was arrested and taken home... a few days later I was in court and find £10.
My mother was none to pleased, I can tell you.
(Tom)
My mother was none to pleased, I can tell you.
(Tom)
Picture taken by the late Alan Heelis.
4 comments:
Going further back in time than the laundry, that shop next to the pub was what we called the "Herb Shop." It sold all manner of herbal remedies and they would make you up a bottle for every illness you could think of. The shop had shelves behind the counter which held canisters and jars of weird looking stuff, and there were small tables you could sit at to drink. Everyone I knew went for a cough bottle in the winter and although I've no idea what went into it, the smell of cloves takes me back there. There were good things to be got too like liquorice root and coltsfoot rock - the things which you would pay a fortune for in a health food store today.
Many years ago I used to have a drink with the late 'little' Billy Miller. As far as I know Bill was the last apprentice in the smithy that stood next to the Ring-O-Bells and he had a lot of really interesting stories to tell about the life of a smithy in the 1930's and of the two old brothers who ran the smithy.
When Bill was called up for war service he was posted to a regiment as a Muleteer (because he knew how to shoe horses) and later he saw service in the Far East looking after the mule trains that were used in the jungles to transport supplies and materials.
A fascinating man.
@ Werneth Low - I've heard a lot about the herbalist that stood there.I'd love a photograph of it. I believe that next door to it,the barbers ( Mr Broadbent), was the brother of the bakers that stood three shops up and became Worthingtons hardware shop, now sadly disappeared.
@ Bill . It's sad he isn't around now - he'd have some wonderful stories to tell us on the blog. :)
Seeing this photo makes me chuckle, not because of the 'Ringers' pub, but because of the little launderette next door.
Our telephone number at my mum and dad's was almost identical to the Coin-Ops, except for one number.
I lost count of how many times we got someone phoning up asking if their bedding was ready, it drove my poor old mother loopy. LOL
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