30 July 2011
So it’s been 3 days since I posted on here. My intention was to post every day but I’m afraid life gets in the way.
So then – today the Boss and I went off on our scooters for a ride around the market in Dorktown centre. I still say its not as good as it was even 20 years ago, let alone 50 years ago when I used to travel on the bus from Gun Hill with my parents when they did the weekly shop. In fact the whole town as changed.
Instead of the old fire station and library there’s now an Iceland, a entry way into the Ropewalk Shopping Centre (where do they get the names from), and a T J Huges. It used to be Woolies but that closed down of course. I remember an old pub called the Castle which dad loved cos he could have pint of Ansell’s mild while mam, me and Dave (my younger brother – no longer with us), could sit out in the yard. I also remember a place where mam used to go for the lavvy. It faced Queens Road and the front of it was large bay-windowned place where me and Dave were parked and told to behave while mam went off to do whatever she did. I told mam I remembered being taken there and she quickly changed the subject ... maybe I should look into it a bit more.
Now what else do I remember ... there’s the old post office and a shop where you could buy radios and stuff. I loved it in there! There was Clarkes fruit stall on the corner of Dugdale Street, always expensive and mam rarely bought from there. Opposite corner was book shop, now what was it called, I can’t remember now. I do remember he was a very surely old fart who ran it! Oh yes, and don’t forget Martins pest shop where we bought my first puppy that I bought with my birthday money. And right behind it was the town gas works ... oh what a stink! It’s not the Co-op car park.
Much later I got to know the pubs much more and many of them have gone. The Peacock, Clock, Half Moon, Holy Bush, Newdigate Arms (a hotel really), Dugdale, Nags Head. Some are still there but renamed like the George Eliot once the Bull Hotel; the Blue Bear (where I have just had three very nice pints of Young’s bitter), once the Wheatsheaf; Bilberries, once the Grandby. Dave and me were in there the night Grandby died. I never actually liked the pub all that much but Dave did. That night we went out for a few together and he claimed he had ‘suffered’ the Peacock (but by the way he put the Double Diamond away he didn’t suffer all that much), so it was no my turn to suffer the Grandby. OK, fine.
Now the Grandby was one of those pubs where everyone knew everyone else or the folks they friends were with. Everyone would meet up there and have a good time. That made it a busy pub at the quietest of times! So there Dave and me were enjoying our pint and taking the peepee out of a Geordie friend of his. About 2 months earlier a new manager had taken over and he was a big difference than the old one. The new one was a bit of a misery really. Anyway ...
One of Dave’s mates started making a bit more noise than the rest of us but no-one was complaining. The manager told him to shut up or leave and not to come back. The guy said, “If I do go I’ll empty the pub!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard those tales before. Out! Now!” said the manager. So as Dave’s mate drank up and made for the door, so did the whole crowd of us, about 9 all told. Someone else asked what was happening so Dave told them, and they left too, another 6 or 7. Slowly the word got out and within 10 minutes the place was empty. It never recovered. However, the Pen and Wing about 100 yards off took up the strain and prospered. The Pen and Wig by the way is now a kids drinking hole where alcho-pops rule the roost but I can’t remember the name now.
So there you have some of it ... the happy life of a Dorktown boozer. Maybe I’ll tell you more one day. Like the night I stayed in the Peacock until turned 3am one time and met the milky on his rounds as I walked home. And the curries, oh the curries – so good. Here’s the Peacock now ...
What a waste!
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