Caroline [Ruby’s niece and Mary Thrussell’s daughter] has some memories of her grandfather’s shop….. I remember a little of what you talked about from our visits to the grandparents, the old shop which still had some stock even though it was no longer a business and even a few customers who would come in in the hopes of finding what they wanted! Poor Granny with her arthritic knees would hobble round to try and help! The shop sold shoes as well as the usual stationery because my great Grandfather had been a shoe maker so there was a legacy in the family of shoes sales. There were still some shoes in the shop in my day but all the sizes nobody could fit or wanted! There was a little window in their front room, like a hatch, from which they could see what was happening in the shop. One of my cherished memories was when we visited for a weeks holiday one summer and I was allowed to create a proper shop, every child’s dream!
>> The bath contraption was just panels around a bath which was placed by the yard wall and a porch was created. The panel over the bath became a shelf for a large number of pot plants which had to be removed before the bath could be used! I think I even had a bath in it once!!
 Mother used to tell us about how the older children became post office workers when they reached an appropriate age, guess it was about 14 as the school leaving age was that low then. They had to sign the official secrets act before they could serve the customers! One tale she told was that she had to witness the mark of some of the pensioners who came to collect their money as they couldn’t write.