Moved to make way for the flats

I was born in June 1932 in Chapel Street. My parents were Fred and Poppy Bow­ers who lived in number 15. My grandparents (my father’s parents) lived next door. I left in 1953 when I married, but my mother and father lived there until they were given a council flat in Whitehawk Road, to make way for a block of flats.

I remember T W Barnes, rag and bone merchants. My mother used to clean their offices during the evening, and I used to help her on Saturday afternoons, when she had a real clean and polish. My father rented our house from them, my aunt and my father both worked for them, also my father’s father.