Interviewer
I’m here talking to David Streatham about the shops in Martham’s Pass. Well this is Black Street Martham.
David Streatham
Yes, this is Black Street. This is Clowes’ Stores, they was quite well known, I believe they also had shops in Yarmouth.
I used to go shopping in there for my mum and dad, because when I first lived in Martham, with my mum and dad, I used to live up the top of Black Street.
This is a green, this in old Mr. Francis’ shop, who used to do barbers;
if anyone wanted to go out in the pub on a Sunday, they’d have a shave with Sam first and then they’d go and have a pint.
Interviewer
So what was your earliest childhood memory?
David Streatham
The earliest memory I can remember is walking to school one day on Repps road,
and we’d had quite a bit of snow,
and one of our schoolteachers came biking past, and we decided to snowball him, the other boys dropped their snowballs but I didn’t, I knocked him off his bike and I got a hundred lines for that.
Interviewer
So everyone was really friendly in Martham, everyone knew each other?
David Streatham
Well, yes they did because you’d go round to any of the shops and they’d serve you at any time of the day,
and when my mum and dad went to Yarmouth the doors were never locked,
and when I first met my wife she said how do I get into your house, I said the doors are never locked! Because everyone was so trustworthy and friendly and everyone helped each other out.
This is a photograph of Mrs. Pitcher’s shop on Repps road. That is now closed and a new house built there now.
Going to her shop and if you haven’t got enough money, then come and pay me tomorrow.
I don’t really remember Cockings, but the show shop has been there all the while, and when Mrs. Cobbs had it afterwards we used to get free boots at school. Used to get allocated so much money, and you used to take a ticket into Mrs. Cobbs or Beryl Grimes on Repps Road, and used to get so much towards free shoes. Also had a harness maker’s shop next door to the shoe shop.
This is the old cycle shop, first one what Frances had was up Black Street, and this is a ticket he used to give people if you upset him, or didn’t use him, or went to somebody else, or to another village and bought stuff, and you went back to him because he was a little bit cheaper and he’d give you this ticket and he’d say, you didn’t want to spend your money with me so you know what you can do!
And then he moved to this one, and after he finished the Kirbys took it over, and up the side alley of the shop Andy Simms used to repair cycles for Kirby’s. When we were at school, that’s where we took our bicycles and had them repaired.
Interviewer
So this is the post office in Martham. Did you visit that often?
David Streatham
More or less every day, you’d be in the Post Office, for general things for your mum and dad.
This is Martham Post Office when Mr. and Mrs. Cooper had it, I used to be a paper boy there. I used to deliver papers on a Sunday. But I got wise to it in the end, because I never used to turn up til 11 o' clock on a morning, by the time I got the papers what I had to deliver, most people had been to collect them but I still got paid the same. And the other thing I done at school before I left school at Martham Co-op I used to be errand boy, delivery boy on a tradebike, and I worked there nearly two years.
This gentleman here is Mr. Sulyl Hubbard, he used to be one of the bakers for the Co-Op, when I was errand boy at Martham Co-Op, Christmastime I used to go on bread rounds with him. But he liked his rum too much and many times I had to steer the van home. This is Jeary the butchers, they used to habe the old slaughterhouse up Market Lane. When I went to school we had three butchers in the village, we had Jeary’s, you had Mr. Garron on Repps Road and you had Chapman’s in the Village Centre.
This is a photograph of Kirby’s blacksmith shop on Black Street. The old petrol pump when I was at school there, I used to go about with Ivy Kirby, and we got the job to fill the old lorries up, and you had to hand-crank the pump and it took you hours to fill the whole lot with petrol.
When I left school and you started a job and didn’t like it you could leave that afternoon and go get a new job the same day. There was so much work about, and you could do what you like.
Interviewer no.2
What do you remember of your father’s shop?
David Streatham
Well he used to have what you’d call a back door shop. People used to come to the back door and come in, and we used to serve them, and then my father had an idea that he would buy a field, so he bought a field where the Flake High School is. He hadn’t had it long and they took it away from him on Compulsory Purchase. So he had another crazy idea and he thought he’d have a shop. So he had a shop built, and this is it, and that was in 1963.
And dad used to grow all those vegetables what you see there, and you used to have quite a lot of people come round.
He still done his shop round. And my mother used to cut up the ham, she used to boil the ham in big pieces and then she used to slice it up.
Interviewer no.2
Here you were saying a bomb was found in your back garden?David Streatham
Yes. There was a bomb dropped during the War, can’t remember when it was but my poor mother, she was so paranoid about it, and that’s all they found what you see there.
Interviewer no.2
So what are they doing there?
David Streatham
They’re digging a hole right opposite the shop. There’s my little baby in the pram, and my dad watching. And they didn’t find the bomb.
