Closing the door on Sarah’s store
THERE are still a few small, independently owned shops dotted about here and there, but a couple of generations ago they were everywhere; all but the smallest of residential streets would have them, and they were where we did virtually all our shopping.
These photographs, sent in by Rowley Regis reader Ruth Taylor, take us back to the days when one such business was coming to its end, after almost four decades of trading. Mrs Taylor told us:
“The photographs are of the little shop on Oldbury Road, Rowley Regis, just opposite where I have lived all my life.
“It is now a Chinese take-away, but it used to belong to Sara Robinson.
“It was a nice shop that sold most things, and I used to go over there every Saturday night at about 6.30. I was her last customer in, and Sara used to lock the door and say ‘That’s it, I can go and put my feet up now.’
“Her husband Fred had always got his tea, which was bananas on toast. He loved it.
“The little dog that you can see in the picture was called Prince. He used to come running in. I was the only one he would allow to put a hand over the little gateway to make a fuss of him. He would growl and try to bite anyone else.
“The shop was Sara’s for 36 years, from March 1950 until August 1986.
“I took the photographs of her standing on her shop doorstep on her last day, when she closed down.”
Do you remember a shop like Sara Robinson’s? We’d love to hear from you, contact details on page 2.