[Margaret Pilkington]

I remember being sent to Bob Wilkinsons shop for coal briquettes and lamp oil.
The Co-op was on the other side of the street. They used to get big wooden tubs of butter.....I used to watch fascinated at how they made lovely patterns in the butter using the bottom of a Bee Top Sauce bottle.....totally unhygienic but we never came to any harm.
There was also Harry Booths Butchers shop on the same side as the Co-op.
I remember one of my brothers being sent to Harry Booths foa a lb of best end of neck chops...... mum was going to make a hotpot...... he must have run all the way along Nuttall St reciting to himself what he wanted, but when he got to the front of the queue he asked for a lb of HENS NECKS...... Harry knew we were poverty struck and didn't charge him for these and he came back quite proud that he had got something for nothing......Mum though, was livid and called him all names under the sun.
When Mum next went into the butchers Harry said to her ' Dorothy I know you are good at making ends meet but what did you want the hens necks for?' she said 'Harry I wanted best end of neck for a hotpot' he asked her what she did instead and she told him that she had to open a tin of corned beef to make tater hash.