1970's View

This is a picture from the early 1970's
I guess the view today is the same the trees have got thicker with another 40 years of growth but apart from that it's the same. One thing has changed the use of the buildings...On the right of the photo you can see the opticians I forget the name of those who ran it in fact "did I ever know?" I am not sure. The building holds even earlier memories for me. At the bottom of the building you can see two half windows that are in the basement. This was place where Harold Whitley cut the villages hair. Harold was a very old man when I was a lad but I remember going. People used to sit on a Carver style chair to get their hair cut but any lads who went sat on a plank placed across the arms of the chair,Harold could not bend down. This was a time when haircuts where meant to last rather than be admired and Harold was the master of the long lasting haircut. I remember having a cold neck for a few weeks after a visit. The shop was always full of flat capped pipe smoking men yet you never had to wait long I suspect that it was more of a social club than a business.
Next building down lived a man called Ormerod who worked in the office at Hudson's I don't remember much about him apart from he had no use for the skills of his neighbor (Bald as a coot) and that he always wore a beige Macintosh. In one of the cottages further down lived a family called Kitchen,they had a son who was a few years older than me Phillip. This is just an assumption based on what I remember but I suspect Mr Kitchen had held some sort of Army rank at some point. Small and squat he would strut around the square with a swagger stick under his arms probably dreaming of days on the parade ground giving people hell. He from time to time had a go at us lads but got nothing back but abuse. Whilst Mr Kitchen strutted his stuff Mrs Kitchen was often stood on the door step smoking, chatting to passers by wearing slippers always slippers. Next down we now have the Vet's. I am told that it was once Clarks  butchers
but that's before my time. In the early 60 this was a small Cafe until Jeff Dixon knocked through to create the Flying Dutchman Milnthorp's legendary Coffee Bar. By the 70's the building was again knocked in to two and the top became Harts Cabin. A magnet for all the village kids Harts Cabin was run by Brian Hart and his wife, the shop stocked  every kind of sweet and bars of Chocolate that where available and also sold Bruccianis ice cream. The Harts where great people and great company and an asset to the village....Well that's about it for this photo I have mentioned the Flying Dutchman in name only but such is it's reputation it deserves a post on it's own when I get around to it.