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	Visiting on London Road Once a fortnight the rents had to be collected, but Grandmother also had some quite good friends along Watling Street. We started at the bottom and called on Mr and Mrs Payne who lived in the first cottage next to the Memorial Cottages. Old Mr Payne helped in Grandfather's garden. So we knew them quite well, they were quite an elderly couple, so we usually started there. Then we would move up to Miss Benbow. She had a very small shop, selling butter, cheese, eggs, that sort of thing. Then came the Misses Lofts, they lived next door - two spinster sisters. Next was Auntie Foxley, a distant relative, who had a little shop. They sold sweets, and the shop had a bell on the door so that when you opened the door the bell rang. It was quite interesting really. The cottages were very primitive., the kitchens particularly. They had no sinks , they used to throw their washing up water on the garden. The privy was at the bottom of the garden. They sold all sorts of things - sold brushes, brooms, dusters, polishes - hardware, I suppose, quite a bit of hardware. But they also had this array of sweet bottles. We as children were allowed tuppence (2d) per week for sweets on Saturday, we used to keep it and when we went to Auntie Foxley we used to buy some of her sweets. We didn't have sweets like children do today - every day - once a week only. I remember out the back - Auntie Foxley had a son, you would say today he was disabled, he wasn't able to go out to work, so he stayed at home and they had a few pigs down the garden and he was in charge of these pigs. When we arrived it was usually feeding time so I usually went out to watch him feed the pigs. They were in a primitive sort of sty - boards knocked together with galvanised sheeting for the roof. Nothing elaborate at all. We usually had a cup of tea with Auntie Foxley and then we ended up at the shop to collect the rent from the butcher there.
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