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News & Goings On
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16/3/2007
CATHOLIC CLUB MEMORIES
..and Mary & Cynthia's chippy
Yampy thanks Kay Savage for the following contribution:
With regard to Beth Moore’s memories of lost pubs (click here), I also have similar memories and in particular remember the Catholic Club behind the Catholic Church on Temple Street.
As a child we visited the club every Sunday night, I can remember the old characters like George, Granny Brannan and her family who seemed to take over most of the bar area because there were so many of them. I can remember Seamus that worked behind the bar and his daughter Lucy (who is now grown up and I last saw working behind the bar in the Conservative Club).
Beth mentioned young Eddie (from the Horse & Jockey) who sadly died, but I remember him as a youngster playing in the catholic club with myself and my sister.
I remember the bingo, the raffle and the old time music – the gay gordon’s, and a dance instructor called Ray who took classes during the week there. The Ball family from Russells Hall were regulars, my mom and dad Mary and John Glover always sat with Jenny and Malcolm Allen (Jenny used to run cut and curls hairdressers at the top of the Holloway). Sometimes we sat in the blue room where the vicar from St. James used to come and sit with us (the vicar that used to look like Dick Emery – but I can’t remember his name). He would have a pint and a whiskey, and if he had enough would tell a rude joke. I remember the gents toilet being outside so in the winter you can imagine what that must have been like.
They are fond memories as we went for about 16 years, but the last time I went there was 1992 to my friends wedding and have now learned that it was closed and demolished due to subsidence which is a terrible shame as we now live in Gornal and I would have liked to take my children there. Does anyone know when it was closed and when it was actually demolished?
We now regularly attend the Baggeridge Club on the Straits, my husband is on the committee and endeavours to keep the club open as so many are fast disappearing in Gornal.
Also does anyone remember Mary’s chip shop (the old junction chip shop – not Shand’s)? They used to do the battered chips, the shop was very small and run by Mary and Cynthia who worked with her – they were very good friends – not sisters as many people thought. The shop closed in the 1990’s when the Junction Pub closed and the new chip shop was opened but my mother in law Cynthia is still known as "Cynth from the chippy" even though she has worked at Merry Hill for years and years.
Sadly Mary died last March (2006), after losing a short battle to cancer. She carried on working in chip shops in Sedgley after hers closed, but not as the Manager as she didn’t want the responsibility and continued to do this into her 70’s.
I know that many Gornal folk will remember them, the shop and the lovely chips they would have eaten after a night out in Gornal!
Has Kay sparked off memories of your own? Email us at history@yampy.co.uk.
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