Mr Groves fruit and veg

[Lastyz 10]

Mr Grove sold fruit and veg from a horse and cart around Wadsley Bridge in the early fifties. He stabled the horse at the Gate Inn where my mother worked. On a Saturday morning I would usually help him load the cart, although how much help I really was would be questionable, I'd only be 7 or 8 years old.

One week I was asked to go down earlier than usual without being told why. When I got there, the horse was already outside but not attached to the cart. It was due to be shoed and I was about to ride it to wherever. My initial delight rapidly changed to fear when I was boosted on to it's back. I was along way off the ground and this thing was alive! I clung on to some sort of harness like my life depended on it, because I was convinced it did.

I was carried, with slowly increasing confidence, through Hillsboro', to the farrier at, I think, Malin Bridge. Back on the ground I was appalled at how the horse was then treated, I couldn't understand how all that heat and smoke didn't cause it any harm. The ride back was more enjoyable and I quite liked what I imagined to be envy from onlookers.

The question is, are, anyone else remember Mr Groves? The ride was real but was the farrier at Malin Bridge, or is my memory playing tricks?

[hillsbro 32]

Hi Lastyz - your memory rings true. Herbert Nuttall, farrier & blacksmith was indeed at Malin Bridge, on the corner of Holme Lane just across from the corn mill. Here is an advert. from the 1942 Kelly's Directory. Herbert Nuttall lived on Hunter Road; he actually died in 1945 but his son George carried on the business until the 1970s, latterly doing mostly welding. I've arrowed Nuttall's workshop on this old photo of Malin Bridge.

 

I don't remember Mr Groves but the 1954 directory shows "Albert H. Groves, fruiterer" at 13 Halifax Road.

Edited January 3, 2014 by hillsbro

[bonesnbradde 10]

Hi Hillsboro what was the fruit shop opposite blockbusters in the early eighties

[hillsbro 32]

Hi Hillsboro what was the fruit shop opposite blockbusters in the early eighties

Hi - the only one I remember in that location is Suddaby's fruit & veg. at 47 Middlewood Road (next to Broughton's bread shop) but that would have been in the mid-1970s.

[Lastyz 10]

Thank you Hillsbro, I expected nothing less from you, and you didn't disappoint. I also remembered where he lived after you told me, between the Off Licence no-one seemed to use and the church.