BRISTOL AS IT WAS - 100 YEARS OF CHURCH ROAD
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- Опубликовано: 14 авг 2022
- CHURCH ROAD LINKS LAWRENCE HILL WITH ST GEORGE. FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS IT WAS THE MAIN SHOPPING CENTRE FOR EAST BRISTOL. IT WAS ONCE REFERRED TO AS 'THE GOLDEN MILE OF SHOPS.'
WITH THE OPENING OF BIG SUPERMARKETS AND INTERNET SHOPPING MANY OF THE FORMER SHOPS HAVE CLOSED BUT CHURCH ROAD STILL REMAINS A VIBRANT MIX OF SMALL SHOPS AND CAFES. THE TESCO, OPENED IN 1967 REMAINS THE FOCAL POINT. HOW MANY OF THE OLD SHOPS DO YOU REMEMBER?
THANKS TO ANDY JONES AND BARTON HILL HISTORY GROUP FOR SOME OF THE IMAGES IN THIS VIDEO.
Some more memories of Max Williams:
Way back in the early 1970's i used to cycle from Ashton Vale from where i lived with my parents at that time to 'Max Williams'. I suppose it took a good 45 minutes or so? and all the way there i was looking forward to buying the items that i saved for on my shopping list. The things i usually bought were wagon kits or spare parts etc for my model railway.
Sometimes i forgot that he closed for lunch i think it was between one and two o'clock? So if i arrived at his shop at just gone one it would be closed of course... but that didn't ever bother me because there was always something close by to keep me occupied until opening time. That something close by was the large goods yard at Lawrence Hill station. The yard had a fairly big goods shed a Blue Circle cement silo, and the trusty old BR 03 diesel shunter in its rather shabby looking rail blue livery.
Well that little 03 would shunt Presflo cement wagons through the giant silo, along with moving box vans filled with bagged cement in and out of the goods shed... it also shunted large wooden open wagons that were filled with bricks from the London Brick Company.
That yard could have kept me occupied all day long, not just with all the shunting but the overall wonderful atmosphere it created.
Nowadays the only movement there is people pushing shopping trolleys at the "LIDL" supermarket that now occupies the site.
Well that's progress i suppose... i am not complaining but all the character of that area has been lost forever apart from the fantastic memories inside my head.
Adrian
Great memories. Lawrence Hill was my local station. I spent hundreds of hours trainspotting their in the 1960s and 1970s. Regards Dave.
7:25 is the Tesco retro shop at the Goodwood Revival
Nice to see the area where i once lived can't help but notice the sudden increase in shops requiring security shutters as the local population changes. Stapleton road and fishponds went the same way, bit of a correlation going on there
Thanks Dave, for another nice collection showing my old stamping ground. I spent much of my youth yomping up and down Church Road, going to and from St George (Park) Middle School, and latterly St George Upper school in Russell Town Avenue. I also had my first 'Saturday' job (although it was actually Thursday evening, Friday Evening and all day Saturday) at Tesco from 1976-77 - in the fruit and veg section with Percy Holly, a very nice man although he often had a few choice words for some of the more challenging customers! I will never forget one time when we had a delivery of dozens of sacks of potatoes, that had all rotted because of the bad weather we'd had - they stayed in the delivery bay for weeks whilst we waited to hear what was to be done. In the end, they had to hire a skip and we had to literally shovel semi-liquid rotten potato into buckets then out into the skip. To this day, some 46 years on, the smell of a bad potato turns my stomach inside out! Happy days, eh... Oh, and another vote for Clark's Pies, the lunch of champions!
Keep 'em coming Dave.
Hello Clive. Glad you are enjoying the videos. Always good to get feedback. Plenty more to come. Regards Dave.
Lovely pictures thankyou for the video.
I used to live round there, it's great to see the Church Road 😁before and recently
Thanks. Regards Dave.
The Tesco brick front was very striking in the late 60s. Glad to see it survives in contr
Hello Terry. When it opened it was considered a big shop. Then the supermarkets got bigger and bigger. Regards Dave.
I remember feeling a little sad when Max Williams closed. They sold cycles downstairs and Scalextric upstairs. Clarks Pies , yum !
Hello Shaun. Two of East Bristol's institutions. Regards Dave.
Yes, the Fishponds store still survives under a different name. The attractive brickwork was hidden when I recently visited Fishponds.
Hello David. It is now ALFU International. Regards Dave.
My father was the manager of David Greigs in the early 70s and I still look at the thistle trademark on the building when passing on the bus. If only the lettering on the tiled floor could have been saved.
Hello David. I remember going in David Greigs with my mum when I was a child. Lovely shop. Regards Dave.
Max Williams had 3 shops all next to each other. There was a Bicycle Shop a Pram Shop and the very best Model Railway Shop in Bristol.
The Pram Shop eventually closed down and the Bicycle Shop moved across the road. The Model Shop was later ran by his daughter who later on closed it down... but there was a sort of reincarnation of the shop that was very poorly stocked and was very short lived... I think it only lasted a few months?
Max was a lovely man always had a white coat on and smoked a pipe. His wife was a very moody woman. He closed for lunch and only opened for half a day on Wednesdays.
Adrian
I don't remember the pram shop. When I knew it, it was selling Mopeds. Great memories of Max. Regards Dave.
We exiled when I was four but on visits back to Bristol if I was a "good boy" my Mum & Dad would take me to Max Williams and buy me a swap it cowboy. You could interchange top halves and bottom haves as well as things like gun belts and hats. Nearly 68 y/o but I'll never forget Maxie Williams!
Glad to see the Tesco shop front survives in its original 1960s form. In contrast to the nearby recent supermarket which is out of keeping with the street scene. The Tesco at Fishponds was built in the same style in the late 1960s but is now a different company. My wife and I saw "April Love" starring Pat Boone at the Granada years before it became a bingo hall.
Hello David. Yes the Tesco building in Fishponds is still there. Regards Dave.
where was the KFC 🤔🤔
It became Miss Millies. It was on the corner of Albert Street. Regards Dave.