by Neville Bastable » Wed May 20, 2009 10:35 am
Hello Silver Surfer, Yes you’ve got it, just off Five Ways in Graingers lane, about eight pence I think for a large pork sandwich and a couple of pence for bread dipped in gravy with crackling added. You must have visited the old market, the big market that is (there were two market halls). People came from miles around to shop at Cradley Heath market, which was a big building behind the High Street shops approached down Beggars’ Row. This had been I was told, a row of about a dozen very old dwellings off the High Street which had been demolished to make way for Mr Adams, the market managers house and also space for selling outside of large items like carpets, lino etc which I recall. I remember Roy Adams taking over from his father. Of the market stalls the one I remember most I suppose was Mr Ross selling material for making dresses, curtains and the like probably beacause my mother helped him out occasionally when he was very busy or was shorthanded. Another big stall was Bonser’s crockery and glassware.
This market was demolished in the 1960’s I think together with the adjacent shops for redevelopment. A new market was included but in my view a pale shadow of the original which had been built in the 1920’s. Prior to that the market stalls had been strung out along the High Sreet, open until late on a Saturday night with the oil lamps spluttering my mother told me.
Neville