Sainsburys was a wonderful shop, always cool I would always marvel at how the lady serving the butter, would use the wooden paddles to cut off a pound or half pound from the big slab, and very rarely would they have to add or subtract any, for the correct weight, patting it into shape as good as any machine, across the floor to the bacon, those huge gammon rashers or half rashers, iridescent green or gold depending how it was cured, the back with some streaky left on, or streaky on its own, a great selection of cheese some cut from the round with cheese wire another art in itself.No packaged stuff so you couldn't see what you were getting, meat that had most of the veins taken out. My mouth waters just thinking about it, the only thing I cant remember was how we paid.

My mother favoured, a grocery shop at the Circle, at the far end of the parade, if I recall correctly. Sometime in the 1950's it went self-service, and that took some getting used to. It seems strange now to remember that there was a time when self-service was unheard of. In food shops the customer would stand in front of the counter and ask for each individual item they wanted in succession, and the shop keeper or assistant would fetch each one and put it on the counter in front of the customer. The amount owing would then be calculated and paid over.

Remember Ralphs in Wrythe Lane ? What a businessman he was. He finished up with three shops along that parade and the housewives loved him because he was one of the first price cutters. I think he was finally bought out by Tesco, but I don't think they did so well after he went. Remember also the barrow boys along there, the police would have a raid every so often and they would pull their barrows to the other side of the road until the police had gone then back again to the best side, what a pantomime.

Looking back, so many things were like a pantomime, Pete! My brief moment of glory in show business was in 1940, when I was persuaded by the National Savings man to stand on a tree stump outside The Rose pub (now a Co-op supermarket) and recite the words from a current poster of the time. It depicted a soldier wearing a steel helmet and his rifle slung over his shoulder. He was shouting, "Come on chaps, we're all in this together. I'll keep the front line safe, if you'll stand firm behind me!" My piping voice was impressively amplified by the R G Jones loudspeaker van. I was awarded a savings book with a stamp in it!

Hello Bill, yes I do remember that wartime campaign. In fact I was cajoled into standing up on the tree stump myself with the microphone, and reading out the slogans. I was so embarrased I don't think I stayed around for long. I can't remember if I got a savings book or not.

took a few seconds and then I remembered- the wonderful tiling around the walls (later a Bejam) as a small child (I couldn't see over the counter) I would wait whilst my mum got her order, served by assistants, and look at the tiles

I can remember when a Spitfire was parked outside The Rose off licence. It didn't have wings of course, and was part of a savings scheme. You bought a sixpenny saving stamp which was then stuck onto a large bomb,empty of course, and for that you got a turn of sitting in the pilot's seat for a few seconds. That must have been pre 1944 - so I can honestly say I was in a Spitfire during the war!

Ralphs as I remember had two stores,one at the Circle and one at Rosehill which was run by Phil Ralph of the Ralph brothers, who made his money with broken biscuits. I can remember as a kid Phil Ralph cutting ham on a slicer so fine he could have performed skin grafts. Ralphs sold out to Tesco in the late sixties.The butchers next to Ralphs at the Circle was Dewhurst, like Ralphs now history. Found your site by chance. I lived at Peterborough Road up to I was 25 I am now coming up to sixty. Like Rosehill, the Circle is now a very run down area due to the supermarkets, people moving out of the area and the car which was never to be seen on our street when I was a kid. Great site for us oldies and when you look back over fifty years the UK is still in a mess.