SHOPS

Thank you Jeannie,


Happy Easter to you also. It would be nice to celebrate it with a few Hot Cross Buns from Tolleys, do you remember their Bakery?

It would be nice to add a Cadbury's Easter Egg also. All of their products we can get here, they are made at their Hershey's plant but you can taste a slight difference from the ones made at Bournville in the UK, you really have to read the labels.

John, on one of his visits, went to Maynards in Taunton and bought their entire stock of Walnut Whirles. Now you can buy most things on line but you can't replace the memories.

The picture of both you outside the fish and chip shop was a good one, they sold the best and biggest Kippers also. We also liked the one opposite the library in Ditton St.

Dyers is always remembered because my mother worked there for so many years.

If I remember correctly, didn't Tony Dyer win the "Brain of Britain" title once or twice?

We were Married on Easter Monday April 6th, 57 years ago, still wondering where the time has gone .

Thanks for all your efforts you put in this site,
best wishes, Marie


Hello Jean
Yes, I certainly remember Dyer's in Silver Street. It was a wonderfully old-fashioned shop, even in the 1950s. Our mother used to take us in there to  buy our shoes and sandals. We always hated the experience of choosing the shoes; it seemed an endless procedure. The shoes/sandals always had to be Clarkes. Mother would never buy anything else. I suppose in those days they were made up the road in Street, so it was her way of supporting the local economy!
I remember Carbin's fish and chip shop too. A visit there on a Saturday evening was a regular habit. Fish and chips for 4d (I thin k) plus a bottle of Vimto to wash it down. I believe the shop still exists. Was your photo of you standing outside it a recent one?
Yes 2000 with John Satchell.
Looking at the Ilminster shops website, I can't say that I recognise many of the shops now. Don't think any of them were in existence in the 1950s, except the chemists, Dyer's and Carbin's.
The whizz-bang cash register you mentioned in Dyer's had, I seem to recall, its counterpart at Rossiters department store in Paignton. I think it was still in use in the 1960s when I last went in there.
Some time ago I wrote about tradesmen  in Summervale. A couple more I thought about recently. The coalmen used to call to deliver heavy sacks of coal (hundredweight?) to my grandparents at number 26. I always remember my grandmother carefully counting in all the sacks that she had ordered, to make sure she wasn't undersold. She was very suspicious of the coalmen! I think that on an earlier occasion she had been cheated out of a sack!
Above is how I remember the coal lorry.
And remember the Coal Bins by the back door? Made a great noise if you jumped on them! Here is my interpretation -


Does anyone remember the Corona pop delivery van? Occasionally we would get cherryade, lemonade, dandelion and burdock, and Tizer from it. You always made sure you returned your bottles because you got money  back if you did so. Can anyone remember how much? It must have been quite an inducement to young children, because I can remember some of us going out looking for bottles to hand in for the money!
Remember these bottle tops ?

Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott