In the 50’s we had milk and bread delivered. When my mum left home my dad didn’t keep up the payments so the milkman stopped coming, but for the following two years, paid or not, the breadman carried on delivering. We lived mostly on bread and sugar at that time and I often think of that man’s kindness and wonder if he knew how much it meant to us four young children.
In the 60’s local deliveries included Wall’s ice cream (remember the cycles with the box on front?) milk, bread, coal, fish, ‘lucky’ heather, the rag and bone man with his donkey stones and kindling, the oil man also had paraffin and other sundries. And then there was the man who had a catalogue he used to bring round and mum would order shoes, clothing and household items that he would deliver personally and she would pay him for them weekly. I still remember his name was Mr. Locke - we saw him more regularly than we saw our relatives.