INTRODUCTION
Dedication
Foreword
The shops
Money in Witham, 1910-1939
THE QUOTATIONS
The day begins
Supplying the shops
Hard work
Delivery
Customers (1)
Customers (2)
Other ways of shopping
The end of the day
Other ways of shopping
We did have a horse and cart and a greengrocery round . . You know where the fire station is up Hatfield Road? - Well, my father had a bit of ground up there . . we used to grow a lot of vegetables and we used to go round - my brother used to go round selling them twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday - course I used to go round with them Saturdays.
The man that kept the Victoria - he used to sell faggots of sticks - he used to take us to Faulkbourne . . to get these faggots . . and we used to get the violets and the primroses and he used to get the faggots. They used to go round selling them. The faggots were very valuable that time of day . . mother'd put a whole one of those in the oven at a time.
He started business in my aunt's house . . They used to go round - 'Johnny fortnights', we used to call them - they used to go round and people used to pay a shilling a week - they got a tremendous big round, you know - people out in the country, they'd have these clothes . . They'd take an order one week, and then next week they'd take what was ordered - you know, shoes, or dress or whatever - they'd take it round sort of on appro., and if they decided they'd have it they paid a shilling a week.
Every Saturday morning . . Moores . . had like a closed in van with two horses, they used to come up from Kelvedon, and they used to stop in Witham, and I used to have to go up, on a Saturday, stop on the corner of Maldon Road where the White Hart is . . My mother used to send for her butter and marge, all at the Maypole in Chelmsford, and I used to have to take the money in the envelope with the name on, and order inside - if you bought a pound of margarine then, you had half a pound give you, free, in them days. And I used to have to go up there at night, about six, and wait for Moore to come back from Chelmsford, and get the parcel.
As a boy I've been on the carriers' cart . . an old Witham ambulance one time of day, with a wooden body, they turned into a little truck . . to Chelmsford. We used to go and stop at the Two Brewers which is at Springfield - in the pub yard . . the driver used to go round the shops himself and gather a few bits and pieces . . Mr. Moore and the driver they would both disappear . . between twelve and two or something, like this . . they used to buy a few things for people, and the others were delivered to the van, the bigger stuff.