The Circle

“The first shop was Rochelles the butcher … The next shop was Harris’s Cleaners and Dyers ? Then Clares the Post office/Newspapers Sweets and Tobacconists Boots the Chemist Whitehouses a grocer. Bates a seed merchants Baines/ Wimbush the bakers not sure who ? … This brings round to Rough Rd the only shop I remember was Summers – the Barbers. … The other side of Rough Rd was Recreation ground with a shelter and toilets, there was also a Roundabout. Next came Parkes the Greengrocers Then there was a little shop where they re-charged accumalators. … Then came the chip shop. Palmers – sweets and tobacconists Hodgesons – Funeral directors”

“I remember Harry Rochelles the butcher on the corner at the Circle and their steak &kidney pies … Clare’s the newsagent, Baines the cake shop … There were trees on the Circle island and metal fencing round the greens at the Circle. Also a great fish & chip shop across the road from Odeon, a bag of chips was a 3 penny piece and was wrapped in newspaper.”

“Baines Baker over the road to Cozifit round the corner the Barbers then Lennons Drapers I worked there Mr& Mrs Lennon had one son Phillip over the road Parks greengrocer then Jones Fish & chip shop past the funeral directors there was a chemist just before Knights”

“The British Restaurant was on Kettlehouse rd 0pposite the exit from the Odeon the kitchen where the food was cooked was at the bottom of Banners Gate road my mom worked there,it was to help out with the rations you could buy bowls of mashed potato or bowl of peas jug of gravy taking your own bowl of course.”

“Where Hewards is, in the 50s, was a shop called Knights. They were basically suppliers of bicycles. … On the Circle was a shop called John Favours. It was a grocers shop and my brother and I were the delivery boys. We rode the bikes with the big wicker basket in the front. … The manager then was a man called Jack Shorter.”

“I used to work on Saturdays at John Favours Grocers, and I worked at first on the biscuit section, when biscuits came in large metal boxes, and you could buy broken biscuits by weight! … I remember serving Danish butter which arrived in a wooden barrel and was cut with a wire, as was the cheese. … I remember the butcher’s on the corner, Rochelle’s, with the brightly painted pastoral scene on the wall outside. … my grandmother used to send me for bread at Baines’ Bakers. They were one of the last shops to have farthings in their prices!”

“Lennons had one son and he was named Eric Lennon next to lennons was a barbers oposite lennons was Parks green grocers next to parks going into rough road was a small park we used t call it the little park?”

“after school (kings rise) I worked at Lennons with Mr Lennon and his son Eric Lennon, they had a warehouse in Streetly by chicken sheds … Parks fruit and veg were opposit . at the back of Lennons there was a shoe shop ,on the Kings Rd there was the very famous Bains bakery”

“I still remember Wrights cake shop and Lennon’s, I especially remember Eric. Bains cake shop was on the opposite corner on Kings road, adjacent to Cozifit, the shoe shop!! Bains was next to what I recall ‘Collins’ electrical shop!”

“there was a George Masons which sold all the Biscuits from displayed open boxes,and there was a Electrical shop were our TV was rented from think it was Rumbellows.oh and Lennords which sold everything you could think of.”

“I remember the butcher’s, but most of all, the park on rough road where they had a playground. … I really remeber playing in the median of rough road that was so long you could roll a snowball all the way to the circle.”

“Jonny was Fred’s son. … Henry’s daughter and they had the circle shop. Fred ran the Kingstanding road shop.”

“… it was paynes shoe repairs when i was born in 1951 then ridgways the grocer bought it & turned it into a sweet shop then rumbolds took it over”

“The road in between the Pub and the Odeon is part of Kings road. it was part of my milk round in those days.”

“my grandad Sid Evans was the farrier at the Co-op Dairy on Kingstanding Road. … My parents met in the early 1960s at the Circle Players drama group at the Kingstanding Community Centre”