Woodwards in Leamington, and Other Shops

Woodwards

My mother worked at Woodwards, Eva Jones she was then. She was born in 1901 so I suppose she was working there when she was about 16 or 17. She worked in the office and sent out all the bills and sometimes she had to go out delivering them. When Woodwards was quite small, they must have had lunch there, as she used to talk about Mrs Woodward cooking lunch for them. If it was pork, my mother always had something different. She used to talk a lot about old Mr Woodward. There was a lady on the corner of Milverton Terrace called Miss James, and several of the Woodwards staff boarded there. My mother left and got a job at a solicitors, at Wright Hassall.

When I was at college I worked there one Christmas in the children’s department selling the children’s clothes, to earn some money. I’ve still got Woodwards clothes, they were good clothes. It was a pity it ever closed.

Burgess and Colbourn

I worked at Burgess and Colbourn, in Bedford Street which is now House of Fraser. I worked there for two summer holidays. They had a book department and they sold newspapers, and I worked there. I enjoyed selling books and I knew what I was talking about. There was a counter just as you came in from the Parade selling newspapers. They had a doorman outside in uniform, and in those days you could go in and find what you needed. A lot of us from school worked there. My school friend Phyllis Beard worked there in the bakers department.

Bobbies

We used to go to Bobbies to shop, what then became Debenhams. You could go into it from the Parade and go out the other end, they had a good restaurant and my mother used to meet friends every Friday there for coffee, it was very popular.

The floral clock was absolutely beautiful was halfway up Jephson Gardens. Flowers at every hour, but it kept getting vandalised.