Growing up and school

Glen grew up on the Kettering Road and went to Military Infant and Junior School, on The Mounts.

The Mounts streets and neighbours

It is hard for Glen to remember The Mounts area as it was, as it has changed very much over the last few decades. She remembers the whole area when it was terraced streets with back-to-back gardens. Everyone was very proud of their homes and most people swept the area in front of their house every day and most mornings. As Glen and the other children walked to school there would be ladies scrubbing the doorstep of the houses they passed, using stiff bristle brushes and scouring powder to make the steps white.

Family greengrocer shop

Glen’s parents had a greengrocer shop and the family lived in rooms behind and above the shop. Every day the pavement in front of their shop, and all the shops in the block, was swept clean and there was little or no litter around.

Dustbin day and childhood games

Every house had one dustbin; some people called them ash boxes because most people had coal fires and the ash from the fires was put in the bin. On dustbin day the bins were left outside the front of the house at the edge of the pavement. One of the games Glen and the other children played was to run along the road and see how many bins they could leap over before running out of breath or courage. The bins seemed to get bigger the more they jumped over, but they were all the same size of course.

Deliveries: milk, butchers, and loyalty to local shops

Nowadays many people have home delivery from the supermarkets and think it is something modern, but back when Glen was a child lots of things were delivered. Milk was delivered daily and she can remember the milkman delivering it using a horse and cart. The horse knew the route and would simply walk round, stopping every now and then so that the milkman could get the bottles from the cart. The milk came in one-pint bottles and most of the milkmen seemed to be able to hold four bottles in each hand, which was quite a feat. The empties were left on the doorstep and recycled. No-one took the milk from people’s doorsteps and people used plastic tokens, called milk checks, to pay each week.

Many butchers also had delivery lads who cycled round their local area making deliveries. Glen’s father also made deliveries of fruit and veg every Friday and Saturday evening. Many of the deliveries were to customers who had lived locally to her parents’ shop and who wanted to stay loyal but had moved away from the local area. People seemed to have more loyalty to local businesses in the ‘old days’. Each area had a butcher’s shop, a baker’s shop and a greengrocer, and people tended to use the same local shops.

Places and memories: church, baths, and bath night

Glen has some lovely memories from The Mounts area. Holy Sepulchre church was very special as there were sheep kept in the churchyard; being a townie who rarely went into the countryside, it was especially nice for her to go and look at them and find odd bits of grass to feed them. The swimming baths were a regular haunt for Glen and her brothers; they all learned to swim there at a very young age and they all got their swimming certificates there. The swimming baths building also housed Turkish baths and slipper baths. Many of the terraced houses did not have bathrooms and most families, including Glen’s own, used a tin bath in front of the coal fire. Glen was one of seven children and bath night was always Saturday night. The bath was filled with water and then the children took turns to have a bath, starting with the youngest. When Glen reached the age of about twelve she had the embarrassing situation of having to take a bath whilst her eldest brother’s friends sat on the sofa waiting for him to get ready for a night out. She decided she would no longer have a bath like that again, and her elder sister took her to the slipper baths thereafter. Glen was amazed such places existed; people booked a timeslot and went and had a bath with what seemed like endless hot water and a bath so deep it seemed more like a pool.

Favourite shops and the doctor’s surgery

Other places Glen fondly remembers in The Mounts are a couple of shops. A baker’s shop in Earl Street did the absolute best small apple pies; even now she can recall the soft pastry and sweet apple filling. There was also a very special shop down towards Regent’s Square which sold toys and lovely glass and porcelain items. Glen and her brother could often be found peering through the windows longingly. Their doctor’s surgery was also in the area on Lady’s Lane, which is now long gone. They rarely visited the surgery, but on the odd occasion they did, Glen remembers there being two doctors, Dr Brown and Dr Hughes. Patients booked in with the receptionist, who then told them to take a seat. Glen’s mother always preferred to see Dr Brown, but Glen found him too severe. Of course there was no electronic system to call people forward; they simply moved seats closer to the doctor’s door as people were seen. It always felt a bit like musical chairs but with no prize at the end.

Looking back

Life was simpler back in the day. As children, Glen and the others played in the street or, for those living in The Mounts area, on the Racecourse. The streets were clean, the roads had far less traffic and were safer, and children walked to school on their own even in the infants. In 1963, when there was heavy snow, they still went to school, although they had to walk along the pavement, which had been cleared by each homeowner, with snow piled in the road. The piles stayed for weeks and seemed to be massive.