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
The day begins
You'd get up at two in the morning for the dough . . All the baker boys would board in . . the sacks of flour - they'd all got to be lifted and popped in.
In those days a butcher had a very hard job. My father used to get up at four o'clock in the morning very often at the end of the week - tail end of the week, say Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and be at work by five or half past, cutting out . . and he used to wake me up sometimes when I got a bit older, and say 'Come on, I want you to bone out some of the joints' - and I used to have to bone out what they called the clod and sticking.
We had to get up in the morning at six o'clock and get the ponies up. We used to come up the Maldon Road full gallop, feed them, brush them down - then go and have us breakfasts.
We opened before eight - about seven - well, they'd be knocking at the back door if you didn't - and then they used to bring their meat and things, to bake in the bakehouse on a Sunday.