DREAMING
MUSEUMS
Breaking down barriers and exploring local heritage with young people
Ladypool Road Haikus
A black and white snap
And the instant is captured –
The eye turned inwards.
We are the project group from George Dixon Academy. We looked at some old photos of the shops and shopkeepers on Ladypool Road, and we worked with the writer David Calcutt to create some haikus about them!
We have also included some memories of the shops by Carl Chinn.
Harrington’s the Butcher’s
In front of the church
The window bloody with meat,
Our faces mirrored.
There were many butchers on The Lane and our mom used to buy her beef from Harrington’s and lamb from Gough’s, so much was the choice between the butchers. Harrington’s was one of the last butchers to close down on The Lane and eventually we used to buy all our meat from there. – Carl Chinn
Jones’s the Greengrocer’s - Mrs. Jones at your service!
Stacked apples and pears,
The slope and shine, the fresh smell
Poured into our bags.
Jones’s was an open-fronted shop and I used to be fascinated by how they stacked the fruit and vegetables in a sloping fashion. Mom bought her fruit and veg from there and her fish from Westwood’s. – Carl Chinn
She’s there to sell, you,
To buy. Her toothless, sunken
Mouth fixes its price.
Burden’s Ice-Cream
Gaggles of grandkids,
They crowd around the counter
All for one cornet!
They made delicious yellow ice cream and one of my earliest memories is of our granddad sending a gaggle of his grandchildren from his house in Alfred Street down to Burden’s to buy ice cream – led by my older cousins Richard and Paul Collet and Tony Chinn. – Carl Chinn
Burden's is now Panache.
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Trippas’s Bread and Cake Shop
The door swings open,
They bring in the fresh-baked loaves.
Heat and yeast. Breathe in.
Nothing compares with
Trippas’s dripping cake. Bite
Off a sweet mouthful.
Making your way home,
Gnawing at the blackened crust,
A bitter-sweet taste.
It had really big windows and inside there was a long wooden counter that stretched from the left down the shop to the door which led to the bakery. Then there was a trap door and another wooden counter running at a right-angle toward the window overlooking St Paul’s Road. It was always a real treat when you got in the shop just as the fresh loaves were being fetched out because you knew you’d be able to pull off the burnt bits on the sides of your loaf. And there was nothing anywhere to compare with Trippas’s dripping cake. – Carl Chinn
Mrs Cash’s Cooked Meats
Tongue, luncheon meat, ham.
Pause, consider, make your choice.
A good, hard, sharp cheese.
This is where we bought our sandwiches of ox tongue, luncheon meat etc. and where mom got her cheese. It was always mild and sharp in those days, no such thing as mature cheese. – Carl Chinn
Almost empty street,
Just a lone figure, fading.
The ghost waves farewell.
