WHEN I was little my Gran Curzon would send me to 'Over Lane' shopping, I didn't know then but Over Lane was the previous name of High Street.
In 1837, Over Lane was described as 'a winding, narrow, ill-kept lane skirted by high banks and dirty ditches.'
But by 1900 High Street had some 166 shops with 50 different traders, including 10 drapers, 15 grocers, 12 shoemakers, 10 butchers and six cycle shops.
I think it was Napoleon who said Britain was a nation of shopkeepers - the salt trade certainly made Winsford true to this.
I cannot imagine the number of times I walked the length of this road to save the penny ha'penny bus fare to school, passing all the shops which we took for granted and seemed to have always been there.
Looking through the old directories of the town it is not unusual to find that many of the premises were in the same family for 50 years plus.
The High Street, apart from the Flashes, was the most photographed postcard scene in Winsford during the Edwardian era.
I apologise if I don't mention everyone's favourite shops, but it was a custom over the years that Winsfordians had their own favourites.
Saturday mornings are memories of a combination of women busy shopping, a trip around the market, accessible down a path next to the old post office at the 'bottom of town'.
Maybe there would be a trip to the Co-op or a coffee in the Savoy.
Every shop was inviting you in with its blinds pulled down, impressive displays and friendly Winsford banter, this was our Trafford Centre or Cheshire Oaks. It had hardly changed in 100 years.
As a teenager in the 1960s, the Saturday morning meet up was eagerly awaited where we would go to the Magnet Cinema, then maybe go to Alan Hughes' clothes shop for a shirt, then down to Hilton's shoe store for a pair of 'winkle pickers'.
Then it was down to Woolworth's, which had been in Winsford since the 30s.
Over the road from Woolworth's was Chester's Ironmongers where the smell of paraffin, oils, rope and paint is still a conversation piece to this day.
The Savoy cafe is on the right, with Slack's Menswear next, followed by Stephenson's newsagents.
Sambrook's butchers and Pearson's were also on this row, opposite stood King's Jewellers, the Zan shop and Williams' stationers, which was accessible down a flight of steps.
And who can forget Dickinson's next to Hilton's and Wooly's? There we would gaze at the Dinky toys in glass cabinets.
I remember walking up High Street in 1974 with all the buildings on the right boarded up, awaiting the bulldozer.
It was like a ghost town, but the memories are still there in countless townsfolk.
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