Rodbourne Lane
But looking at it now, Rodbourne Lane – it ain’t altered a lot.
I suppose, the Post Office – that’s exactly the same as it was, as I remember when I was a nipper.
The Co-Op – that hasn’t altered, that’s still there.
The Dolphin, that’s still there. Apart from one or two house round about and the front of the shops painted up, nothing’s much altered there.
Apart from the row of slums, from Morris Street to the front of Even Swindon School, they pulled all those down – and that was really slums there. They pulled all those down and put some council houses up and widened the road and one thing and the other.
Old Mother Martin used to have a fish shop up there too, that was on the corner of Morris Street. Then there was a Fish & Chip shop next door to Don’t-Ya-Know’s – that was a bit farther up of course. We used to deal with old Mother Marin. Mum one day, she was enjoying a plate of fish and chips and found a fried mouse in her chips – that’s honest, you ask Jim I expect he’d remember that. Ronnie Newman was the other Fish and Chip shop I remember – that was, as I say, next to Don’t-Ya-Know’s. As I say, that’s where we went and got all our fish and chips – I’d better keep my eye on this tape because I don’t know how much we’ve got left here.
Course, Rodbourne Lane was a bit different to what it is now. I mean, you was taking your life in your hands, honest. There was always a free fight going on there, always something going on. And there was some rough customers down there. But they weren’t a bad old crowd, we always got on alright with them and always proud to call ourselves Rodbourne Road lads.
But there was always a good way of keeping the kids in check – now I’ve got a mate lives out Gorse Hill and he swears blind that he tells me that he reckons it’s true too. He said if ever he was playing up, his mother used to threaten to send him down Rodbourne to do the shopping. He was frightened to death of coming down to Rodbourne! I think they all were. Honest!
