Francis Laker

You used to have the man outside Simpkins and James that was selling carpets and lino and stuff like this, oh you know, 'What am I bid for this?'
Somewhere where Wilkinson's is now, The Victoria Hotel, the Vic as we used to call it. On the bar there used to be an iron rail all the way round and when I see these pictures of cowboys and they've got their foot up...I always think of the Vic. They used to chew twist. Although everybody smoked I can't remember a lot of smoke puffing about - probably because I smoked those days. So you didn't notice 'cos you did it. The George used to be the place to go. That's The Bounty now. In the entrance there they used to have half slices of pigs hanging up and hams, oh yes, all salted hanging up there, I mean, they dare n't today. It was a big entrance. Everything was salt-petred down to keep, there were no fridges or anything like that. You wash it well, leave it to soak for twenty four hours or something like that to get it all out.

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Albert Attenborough

In Mansion Street, there were a chip shop and they used to sell chips and faggots - that were one of the delicacies - you'd pay about 1d in them days - for a plate of those. You'd have to be rich to live like that! As lads we couldn't have any money because mother were that poor, so we used to go down...where the bank stands on the corner of Castle Street, right at the bottom...now on that corner used to be Wheatley's fish'n' chip shop and they used to have batter bits - the bits of batter that'd come off - they used to chuck them in the side there and us chaps we had to go and ask, 'Could we have some batter bits, please?' You'd get your ears cuffed and turned out of the shop but sometimes he'd take pity on you and give you some.

Just round the corner was Finches, that were an ironmongers shop, that were one of the best ironmongers in Hinckley. Behind the ironmongers shop was a yard or a walkway that went through by the public house and come out where Barclays bank is now and there was an iron urinal, just an iron sheet like that, and just a little trough for you to go wee in and that was there 'til more or less going up to the Second World War that was. There used to be one of those up in the Lawns by the Castle Tavern.