Memories of Royston
The old post office which is now a lino and carpet shop has been a bicycle shop selling and repairing motor bikes. Then there was a chemist shop (Pickering’s Chemist which transferred to here from the Wells corner) which became Mount’s furniture shop and Meadow Grocery and there was Tinker’s buns and cakes. There was Griffith’s who sold sweets which was taken over by Froggats and one was the Co-op shoe shop. Melias grocery and general dealer became a furniture shop and further on was David Haigh’s pawn broker shop, with three balls hung above the door, Bolton’s green grocer and Black’s newspaper shop which became the pet shop. Mark Westnedge’s boots shoes and clog shop was where the Tone and Tan studio is now and the Barnsley Dyslexia Association was once Yorkshire Trustee Savings Bank. There was a house converted into a bicycle repair shop which sold all kinds of cycling equipment, then there was Hawkins’ off licence across from the Bush Social Club and a sweet shop. The Labour Exchange, which was a soup kitchen during the 1926 strike, became a youth centre but the building was demolished some time ago. There was Bird’s confectionery shop. Simpson’s hairdresser became Micklethwaites and Macleans-Tordoff the dentists are still occupying the same premises today. Further on there was Blenkarn’s building contractors and building materials and over the Air and Calder canal Hawk’s shop which has long been closed. The Ship Hotel, once owned by Jessie Scull, is reputed to have the longest bar in Yorkshire and once housed the coroner’s court and my grandfather, George Henry Cutts, sat on the bench. It also housed the Monckton Cycling Club, the Fur and Feather Club and the Pigeon Racing Club which found it particularly useful because it was near the railway station where the pigeons were despatched to the start of their races. Finally a fish and chip shop called Finney’s in a row of houses before you got to the gasometers. I peeled potatoes for Mr Finney when I was a boy. 70