Paradise Street was a great place to grow up

By trodaway

I was interested to see the pictures of Holloway in your Memories feature.

The photograph of Paradise Street brought back personal memories of my childhood. I was born at number three which was represented in your picture by a pile of rubble.

What a great pity that these sturdy old houses were demolished long after the war to make way for much less attractive housing.

I remember too visiting 'Thump' Meredith's fish and chip shop during my school days at St Marks. Our headmaster was 'Tunger' Webley who did a valiant job enduring that we were safely escorted to the shelters during the war time air raids. My favourite teacher was Miss Highfield who taught me to speak the King's English which, more than any exam success, steered me in my later life to some success as a speaker and writer.

A feature of Mr Meredith's fish shop were the cubicles with tables and seats and curtains which you could close to protect you from the prying eyes of those who formed the queue at the counter to take out their purchases for consumption elsewhere. The food was wrapped in newspaper.

In Paradise Street my next door neighbours were the Cleaves family. Their son Stanley and I were inseparable as youngsters.

My family were ardent Salvationists and it wasn't long before Stanley was introduced to The Salvation Army Sunday School. I could not get him to join the band but he later became Major Cleaves having gone into full time service in the Army. Before that we both did our national service in the RAF.

Mrs Kite lived at number four. She was a kindly older lady who supplemented my pocket money by giving me a penny to fetch her fish and chips on a Friday. These were purchased at Mrs Green's shop in Wells Road right opposite the premises of hairdresser Reg Polden.

Reg was the unofficial 'mayor' of the district and he was a great benefactor advertising regularly in the paper produced by the kids known as The Courier.

It was a great place to grow up. Although the German bombers gave a scare it was the generous spirit of the people which provided an happy childhood. The debris resulting from the 1942 blitz which saw much damage in Holloway in turn provided us with a place to play and explore among the rubble which remained for many years after the Nazi pilots did their damage. We were never bored.

Edgar Evans

Upper Wellsway, Bath