Week 18 – 30th April to 6th May, 1984

 

(B120) Chinese takeaway Silver St opposite Roundstone St

 

(B121) Beaver Engineering, plastic moulding Bradford on Avon. Do I see a pair of earphones from a  Walkman?

 

(B122) Beaver Engineering

 

(B123) Beaver Engineering

 

(B124) Chris Jones, MD of Beaver Engineering

 

(B125) Office manager, Bowyers. Meat pies and sausages

Bowyers are the first B in the Trowbridge for Bangers, Beer and Beds. The others B’s being Watneys and Airsprung.

 

(B127) Loading Melton Mowbray pies at Bowyers factory

 

(B128) Bowyers factory. Taking it down or putting it up, I wonder4?

 

(B129) tea break at Bowyers. Workers started at 6 for an 8 hour shift with tea breaks. Then another shift at 2 until 10, then the night shift 10 to 6. Music is played but only for an hour then off for an hour. The reason being workers were asked if they wanted music or not.  The response was half said On and half said Off.

(B131) Receptionist at Ar Dec. Not sure what that was. Note the wooden single column desk, a rotary dial phone with push buttons for forward connecting, no computer and an ash tray for cigarettes.

 

(B132) Ansis bodywork shop

 

(B134) Getting paint ready for car touch up

 

(B135) Mixing paint for painting.

 

(B136) Sewing machine repair in Castle St

 

(B138) Illuminations in Church St, closing down  sale. The building was renovated and became an Estate Agency

 

(B140) Out door travelling evangelism, in Fore St which was still open for vehicle traffic in1984. You can see the Ramsbury Building Society office, and a sign for the Gateway Building Society and WH Smiths in the middle distance.

 

(B141) another shot of the Evangelist  book stall, in the back is Philip Stiles Travel Agent office. In those days the rolls of film would be collected at the end of the day by a man in a van, taken away to be processed and printed and returned the next morning. Estate Agents would produce a For Sale leaflet with the added note ‘Awaiting photos.’

 

(B143) The building of the Trowbridge Inner Relief Road (not a By Pass because it did not go round the town). It was called County Way because while the Town Council and West Wilts raised a variety of objections over its design and route,  in the end the County had its Way.

 

(B144) Spectators would walk over the temporary bridge to Brown St and watch the progress of the new relief road.

 

(B145) The X41 Salisbury to Bristol bus.  The building in the background was still a restaurant of sorts.

 B145 – buiding should read building.  The building in the background was at one time  a Berni Inn, The Woolpack with its ubiquitous fare of Prawn cocktail, Steak and Black Forest Gateau. [John Baxter]

 

(B147) Screen printing, not sure where

 

(B148) At the Polish Club, Waterworks Rd

Details here

(B149) elderly men at the Polish Club. A lot of people fled Poland in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II, and Trowbridge was a town with a barracks and a factory that worked on the Spitfire. So it is possible these men served with the Allies, and fought with us for freedom from oppression. Spare a thought for them, lest we forget.

 

Do you remember 1984?

Share your memories with us.

Write to Julie Davis
Community History Advisor
Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre,
Cocklebury Rd, Chippenham
SN15 3QN

localstudies@wiltshire.gov.uk

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(c) 2017 images Mike Lloyd