People say you should not think of the past but I do and many more besides myself, when I think of Gorton and its shops, before the demolition and so-called progress.
Many times I have met people and got into conversation and it comes up where were you born? and you reply "Gorton". The same old reply . "Oh Gorton, when Cross Street was there I would go to Cross Street instead of Stockport and I lived in Stockport centre". This has also been said by other people from outlying districts.
You only had to go to Gorton and you could buy what you wanted. Anything from a button to an undertaker you would find on Cross Street, now Garrett Way. It is hard to accept this progress when you had shops and more shops to buy from. You could walk down the left side and then cross over to the right side. Shop windows to look into all the way along. If you weren't shopping you would be bound to meet someone you knew and get chatting.
What did I miss when Cross Street was no more? Oh, it wasn't just the shop windows. It was the bakers - the aroma of bread being baked on the premises. There was Hansfords on the left hand side coming from Wellington Street. I can say I remember three generations in that shop. And how they could make a ring of honey buns. You cut into them and the honey would be there, spread with butter and you had a real treat. Then on your right hand side going towards Hyde Road and just past the Suburban pub was a bakers called Robinson and Smith. Freddie Robinson had shops all over and moved from Cross Street to Levenshulme in 1934 when it became Arnold Cocker & Sons. And in 1961 it became Richardsons, the same family as Cocker & Son. The family baked from coke fired ovens. Many is the time I have thought about that shop.
They could bake bread and muffins that wanted some beating according to my taste buds. Could they do oven bottom muffins? They were baked on the oven bottom and would have the deep dimple in the centre with the bottom of the muffin brown and crispy. I always asked "please can I have well baked ones?" To me the browner the better. I could relish one this minute.
Fancy cakes, they were a sight for sore eyes. Wedding cakes and Birthday cakes would be ordered and when finished would go on show in the display window for all to see. You could go Saturday afternoon and take a dish to buy fresh whipped cream. Mrs. Richardson sold it off with it being Saturday. This went well with a deep filled apple pie or wimberry pie or we'd make a trifle and pile the cream on top.
Christmas time at the above shop was something to be remembered. Christmas Eve the shops opened at 8.30 am. - the queuing started at 7.30 am. to buy the goods. The shop had two large windows, one for display, the other for daily baking. On December the 24th both would be full of Christmas fayre. Mince pies - the pastry so short it melted in your mouth - Christmas cakes iced and decorated, my choice was the one without the icing but topped with toasted marzipan. Rum truffles, marzipan logs, chocolate Christmas logs - cream inside and a robin on top - pork pies and sausage rolls.
When I say the queuing started at 7.3O am, I know - I stood in the queue at 7.30 am. The line started from the shop door (between the two windows). It would pass Dempseys Shoe shops which came next door, then the queuing continued down Middlewich Street (now gone). My father-in-law would ask me" are you going to Cocker's early in the morning?". "Of course, I have put my order in" I would reply. My faithful father-in-law would say "You go then, I will see to the two girls. We will meet you later and we will pick the turkey up from Jacks".
Jack was J. Ward and Son, a family butcher whose shop stood half way up Cross Street on the left hand side. That business was of three generations. You could buy homemade brawn from there (brawn was made from the pig's head). Jack made it in small basins; he would run a knife around the inside of the basin and it came out into a mould of brawn. Great stuff on oven bottom muffins!
The Ward family knew their meat airight, no pulling and tugging on the beef and steak. It was English beef, pork and lamb. At that time you ate it without fear (no mad cows around). You would see pig's heads on display with an orange in their mouths.
My family would meet me with the turkey, then we all helped to carry the goods home with instructions from myself to "keep the boxes straight or else!". Grandad would chirp up "do as you're told, keep them straight". Then he would say "and when we get home we will put the kettle on and brew up and we will all have a toasted tea-cake". When I think back you did not have to shout whip when you found a currant. They would be full of fruit. Cockers of course.
Cross Street had a shop called Clarks on the left hand side, next to "The Rose of England" pub. You bought your new laid eggs from there. You knew they were new laid. How? I leave it to your imagination, reader.
The shops would have rabbits hung up, they would have the skins on, their stomachs would be open and cleaned of course. A skewer made of wood would be holding the carcass open. This would show the freshness of the rabbit. A winter's meal was made of rabbit and bacon stew.
I could go on and on about Cross Street and its shops and shopkeepers. To see it all at Christmas was a thrill, it had everything. What has Gorton got now? I stop and think, oh yes, we still have four family businesses left. Slaters Shoe Shop on Wellington Street (when I was a nipper their shop was next to the Gorton Lad's Club on Wellington Street); Hansfords in the indoor market; Hills Fishmongers (which used to be on Cross Street on the opposite side to Cockers but which is now also in the indoor market); and Edwards Fruit and Veg. This last business used to be on Hyde Road as you turned right at the bottom of Cross Street. In those days it was Mr. and Mrs. Edwards Snr., Harold and Edith (son and daughter). Today. Harold, Ian and Ken stand on the outside market. So we are still blessed with the four family traders. In those at least you are always greeted with "hello there". It is hard to accept what we have now compared to what we used to have. Shops both sides of Hyde Road, Wellington Street, Cross Lane and - the jewel in the crown Cross Street. Every shop occupied, not empty with shutters down like it is today.
Now when you shop, you pick up a wire basket or push a wire trolley about. It's known as progress in the 'modern times'. I know which way I would rather have. Gorton with its real shops.
Lou. Burns
6.2.97.