Broken biscuits at John Favours

I had a black metal money box, with a gilt handle from the Municipal Bank where I saved some of my pocket money in the 1950’s. It had to be taken to the bank to be opened and the money deposited. 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! Later I graduated to the other counters, and 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. I hated going in when I was very small, because you had to queue past sides of meat hanging on the wall, and dripping blood onto the sawdust floor. Wouldn’t pass health and safety now! My mother’s friend, May Barnes, was manageress at Harris’ Dry Cleaners, and my grandmother used to send me for bread at Baines’ Bakers. They were one of the last shops to have farthings in their prices!