[lutonman1]

Mr. De Rue, had a barbers shop, on the left going down from Gladstone Road.

[smiffy]

That's interesting, I used to walk past nearly every day between '65-70 and can't remember it open so it may have been closed before then. The shop at the top of Wyndham Road was called Saul's.

[PL247]

I think it must have been when I was very young (late 60s early 70s) as I don't really recall it being used, but my mum says she used to use the grocers, and my parents moved in around 1963. There was a shop at the top of Wyndham Rd as well, on the left hand side heading from Dale Street, on the corner opposite the General at Sea.

[smiffy]

Thank you PL247, my hunch was right then! Do you know when this shop closed?

[PL247]

The shop on the corner of Wyndham Road was at one time a greengrocer, and then a sewing / repair shop. I lived at 247 Dale Street almost opposite from 1967 (born there!) for about 20 years.

Up the road the butchers was run by Mr Mercer with Mrs Brenchley taking your payments, and the electrical / hardware shop was run by Mr Elbris.  There was a hairdressers there at some point as well.

Hygates shop, just down the road from us, was run by Mr Hygate and his wife. He was quite senior in the St John Ambulance and patched me up several times. Once after I came down Wyndham Rd on my bike, brakes failed and I ended up in someone's front garden. They started selling carpets in the shop after his son or daughter set up Santone carpets. Great shop for sweets and he even used to open Christmas Day morning in case you needed anything.

[smiffy]

I've often wondered if this house on the junction of Wyndham Road/Dale Street used to be a shop at one time - it seems to have once had a corner entrance.

[snodlandmalc]

Man of Kent, Mr & Mrs Nicklen's shop (or was it Nickling) is in 101sean's photo, it was next to Farthing's greengrocers. I remember it as a sweetshop which was run by Mrs Nicklen and, as you said, Mr Nicklen would cut hair upstairs in their back bedroom, he gave a real old fashioned short back and sides! I believe he had a workshop in the backgarden where he repaired umbrella's. They were a lovely couple and I spent a lot of my pocket money in there! She sold what I call novelty sweets, chocolate in the shape of tools, liquorice in wheels and jar upon jar of different sherberts. When it was announced about decimalisation she got very stressed about it and said she could not cope with it and the day it was introduced they closed forever. 

It amazes me now, how a small area could support so many shops. I think between Gladstone Road and Corkwell Street there were eight shops. I remember the newsagents with the barbers in the back, next to that was a butchers (he sold up and moved to a new shop at Lordswood) and near it was a dressmaking shop.

[man-of-kent]

Just below the junction with Corkwell Street on the east side of the road was another newsagents / hairdressers called Bossworths or something very similar. I did a paper round from there during the early 60s.

[man-of-kent]

Just down from the junction with Gladstone Road there was a small newsagent with a gents hairdressers at the back. It was owned by someone with a name similar to Nicklen. He also had an unusual trade of umbrella repairer. He had a certificate on the wall stating he beat the panel on What's My Line.

[smiffy]

Smiffy, our paths probably crossed a few times in the distant past!

Maybe, my route to school took me down Wyndham Road then right into Dale Street so I'm only really familiar with the top end, which is also where an Aunt of mine used to live. Damned if I can remember the butchers - what about the Ironmongers, or is my mind playing tricks? After walking past somewhere a thousand times you'd think it would be ingrained in your memory, but apparently not!

[101sean]

There was a butchers shop in that parade next to Hazel Motors, it was at the top end.

When I was going to school in the 60s there was another sweet shop and a barbers lower down Dale Street down towards where the sheltered housing is now. Think there were shops in Dale End (could be wrong) and at the top of Hills Terrace behind the Shipwrights (think they've been mentioned in another thread)

I should probably have started a new post with that picture and my walkabout, maybe one of the mods can move it in here?

Smiffy, our paths probably crossed a few times in the distant past!

[smiffy]

Just noticed 101sean mentioned Hygates in the Wyles Road thread, wasn't aware that this was the name of the shop I was thinking of.

[smiffy]

Should have started a new thread myself for this 

Thanks, I noticed that it is two separate houses now. I remember cutting down the alley next to it in order to get up to Maidstone Road now and again.

There were some others a bit further up from here, just past Hazel Motors, which seems to have been there forever. They're still there but boarded up. I remember one of them being an electrical outlet of some kind - they had the odd television on display in the window occasionally. The other one I think was an Ironmongers. This was in the 1960's, going into the 70's.

[redge]

1974 Kelly's   239 Dale Street, Chatham.
                    Hygate Bros., Shopkeepers.

[grandarog]

Bit before your time.
William H Heyburn had a Grocers Shop at 239 Dale Street. Kelly's 1913 Directory.