Articles Archive
Article	Author
Revidge in the 1930's	Kathleen Shorrock
I was 6 months old when, with my family, I came to live on Revidge Road. My father who had been a master tailor, took over a shop at 104 Revidge Road from a Mrs. Knowles. This shop sold sweets, chocolates, cigarettes etc. and a small amount of tinned food and patent medicines. There were more shops in that district then than now and I readily recall Tottys fruiterers and greengrocers at the opposite corner 106, Revidge Road. The top house in Lynwood Road - apposite the yard gate of the Dog Inn, was Andrew Grimshaws butcher’s shop. During the 1930’s his wife took in paying guests, the lodgers she had were Blackburn Rovers players. I recall that the Dog Inn, for the whole of the 10 years I lived there, was run by a Mr. And Mrs. Jack Riley. This pub has a large back yard and this was were the famous bonfire was held every 5th November. Mr. Riley allowed his son and daughter and any other children they knew to store the bonfire wood in his barn. Originally the shop that my dad bought had been a farmhouse, in fact it had a stone over the front door saying "T & A Guest 1777" (Thomas and Ann Guest). We had a small cottage between our shop and the Dog Inn and the yard of this cottage opened into the large back garden we had. At first the "garden" was mostly earth like a field with the turf taken off, however my father soon had a border with flowers and later there were some fruit bushes. At one time my father laid turf and we had an eight hole putting green. I had a small putter and I can remember having some good times playing on there. When Dad bought the shop he also had to buy the adjoining shop which was on Dukes Brow. This he rented out to a man called Mr. Dodd - he didn’t live there but lodged in New Bank Road. Mr. Dodd was a shoe repairer and the back down to this property also opened into the top part of our back yard. On the wall of our very tiny front garden, in front of our living room window, was cut into the stone "600ft. above sea level". Immediately opposite our shop was the double fronted house called "The Crossens" occupied at that time by a Mr. And Mrs. Gregson and their son Sydney. The house is still standing and looks very similar. After we had been there a year or two, the opposite corner was opened as a small mixed business by a Mr. And Mrs. Waddington. The Crossens and the Waddington’s shop were at the corners of beardwood Brow. Just a short walk down the brow was, and still are, allotments and Blackburn Golf Club. We had many customers amongst the golfers. In 1934, with Mr. Dodd’s permission, Dad broke through the wall at the top of our stairs, and made a café room, doing most of the work himself. I can recall going with him to a firm in Regent Street who made furniture and we bought some bentwood chairs and small tables. We also purchased linoleum and curtains. There are still a few people around who can remember this café room. We mostly served hot and cold drinks, according to the season, and our famous home made ice cream. During this time the Golf Club didn’t cater much and some of the gentlemen called into our shop on Sundays and ordered tea with us. This consisted of a meat tea, salad,bread and butter, followed by fruit and ice-cream and cake plus tea of course. Near the top of Dukes Brow lived Mrs. Ward, known to most people as "Granny" Ward. She had a shop on the opposite side to ours selling nails, hinges, parafine and many other sorts of hardware. Her daughter Alice was also the local barber operating in one of the upstairs rooms. Granny ward was a character, she always wore clogs and black woollen stockings and I remember a black or dark blue felt hat. Our shop gained quite a reputation for the home made ice-cream which my father made. Although I saw this being prepared often, neither my sister or I ever thought to make a note of the recipe. The ice-cream was prepared in our kitchen (this was allowed in those days). It was then put into a metal container to be mixed thoroughly by an electric mixer which had been made by my uncle who was an engineer, helped by my Dad. The metal container was then lowered into a larger wooden tub and packed round with ice. I remember the ice being delivered in 1 cwt. Blocks by a man who always had sacks over his shoulders. It was then stored in our shed always covered with sacking as we had no refrigerator at that time (1930’s). Our milk was supplied by Frank Entwistle from his farm at the bottom of Beardwood Brow (it is now a housing estate). He brought milk for the ice-cream along with milk for the house and café room on a horse drawn float. On a good day when ice-cream was selling well, Dad had to go down to the farm for more milk to make a fresh batch and I often walked down with him. We had people coming from Pleckgate, Lammack and Wilpshire for ice-cream. In 1935 Blackburn celebrated the Silver Jubilee of King Geaorge V and Queen mary. Many people decorated their houses and shops with red, white and blue bunting etc., and the Chamber of Trade decided to have a window dressing competition. My Father always enjoyed window dressing and made a special effort for the Jubilee. He was overjoyed when he won a prize. From about 1934/5 we had a regular group of lads in their teens who came to the shop on evenings and weekends, some of them from St. Silas Church, some from St. James Church at the other side of Corporation Park. The St. James lads mostly came on Sundays after church in the evening or on Sunday afternoon. We got to know these boys quite well, most of them didn’t bother with the café room but sat at a table in the shop with their sarsaparilla drinks. This little corner of the shop was soon termed "the vault". Most of their walks and activities were planned from here. We heard of their games of cricket and football for the church, and their camping trips. Most of them were, or had been, Scouts. The cottage at 102 Revidge Road was occupied by a Mrs. Crank when we bought 104. She was a widow from the 1914-1918 war. After Mrs. Crank’s death this cottage was occupied by Fred and Beatrice Lodge when they were first married. He was from Lodge’s Nursery which was at the opposite cornet to Fergusons Nursery on Preston New Road. Gerry Matier and his wife also lived there. Gerry was a Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper, he had previously lodged with Mrs. Grimshaw on Lynwood Road. Another Rovers player who stayed there was Billy Tyson. My maternal grandfather, Thomas Isherwood, who had the last Hansom cab in town, came to us for tea on Saturday towards the end of the 1930’s. My mother and I used to go to town after tea and look around the market. On our return home our shop was usually full of noise and smoke. My Dad, Andrew Grimshaw, sometimes Harry Greenwood and others were all discussing the afternoon’s game at Blackburn Rovers, along with two or three of the players. My grandfather who wasn’t a football fan would sit in the living room playing draughts with Charlie Calladine who played inside left for the Rovers. He and his wife Joan lived in Leamington Road. One other shop I recall was on the corner of Lynwood road and Revidge Road. This was Miss Battersbys who used the front room of the house as a shop selling home made cakes and tea cakes, but her speciality was her home made potted meat which was excellent. There were two Miss Battersbys and I believe that one of them was (or had been) a teacher, she would give tuition on hand writing. The other shop at the corner of Wycollar and Revidge was a Thos. Boltons grocers, it’s now Janice’s Hairdressers Shop. Nazareth House at that time housed girls who I think were orphans. This is on Preston New Road, but the nuns regularly came into Revidge collecting for their good work. Twice a year a little money from a bequest left to them was spent on sweets at our shop and the girls, together with two or three of the nuns would walk up Revidge Road to collect their sweets, or in summer, ice-cream. During the late 1930’s it became even more clear that war was coming. I remember black curtaining being bought and Mr. Worden, the jeweller of Lord Street, who was our Air Raid Warden for the area coming with another gentleman to fit our gas masks.  1939 was a momentous year for us because the Blackburn Corporation then decided to widen Revidge Road (or at least our part of it). After a brave fight by my father and his solicitor, Mr. Thos. Marsden, a compulsary purchase order was made on our shop, and the cottages at the top of Dukes Brow from the garage, then owned by Sparks Bros., to the junction with Revidge. We had to be out by January 1940 and it was very fortunate that we had another shop at 19 Northgate which had a flat above and five people somehow had to squeeze into this. None of us were very happy to do this. September 1939 saw the beginning of the war and each week it seemed that one or another of the boys I mentioned before came in to tell us which of the armed services they had joined. My father had more idea of their future than we had, having served in the 1914 war, but it was a very sad time for all of us. I wrote regularly to some of them not realising that some would not return. Being in a shop we got to know lots of people around Revidge, many of whom became friends. The district was always friendly and had a village like atmosphere. Many people still visited us on Northgate, not least the boys on their home leave from the war. My Mum and Dad lived in Northgate until their retirement in 1959, when they went to live in Harcourt Road.
More articles from our Newsletter Archive