Tesco Express to be built on site of old petrol station

[noel]

I went past yesterday, coming down Canberra Road. Now the Turpin Green Lane access to the roundabout has been extended the traffic coming down from TGL is much more visible. A pity they couldn't have done that before starting on the store, it would have avoided a few collisions I read about on Leyland Memories FB page. And I will get that photo Frank.

[anacortesdamp]

Thanks, Noel. I'm particularly interested to see if the row of houses on the Turpin Green side of Canberra Road, immediately up from the gas station site are still there.

Eileen and I both had relatives on the other side. Her aunt and uncle (he was Billy Ryding - can't remember wife's name) and my Welsh relative Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Mabel Roberts (she was my paternal grandmother's sister) lived in the house on the corner of Nelson Avenue that had the monkey puzzle tree in the front garden (might have been Number 89).

Mabel and my grandma and a couple of others ran a haberdashery opposite the Co-op on Chapel Brow. I think it's a wine shop these days. Mabel and Lloyd lived over the shop before they retired and moved to the house. He was a music teacher (taught me piano) and was a very good violinist.

I remember Aunt Mabel recounting a story about going back to the area of Wales where they'd lived (and where some of Uncle Lloyd's family still do). It was well over 60 years since they'd left. In the village market an elderly lady stopped her and said "aren't you Mabel Swann?" It turned out to be someone who'd been involved in her wedding to Lloyd and who had remembered her maiden name.

Memories can be mind-boggling!

I'd like to hear from anyone who studied music with Uncle Lloyd.


Frank

[noel]

Finally

[devonman]

A couple of points from this thread.

Barton's garage did indeed have a car wash behind it. It was open to the elements and rusted badly. When I was a reporter for the Lancashire Evening Post in the '70s I tried to follow up a story that the car wash had fallen down on the Rolls Royce belonging to local developer (and Colin Barton's mate) John Rigby - but everyone clammed up!

As for Tesco, it was still a fairly small outfit in the late 60s but did have a "supermarket" in Hough Lane in what had been a row of houses opposite the Post Office which had earlier been converted into three shops by a local businesman called Dougie Cross. Of course Tesco is now huge and did take over (but burnt their fingers) on a U.S. chain called "Fresh and Easy" (I think). Check them out on Google.

Colin Damp