Old pictures bring memories flooding back of a long-lost community in Wolverhampton
Wolves players training in the car park, the jolly barber, and a friendly natter over the bacon slicer.
Our recent spread of pictures showing the North Street area of Wolverhampton, taken by student George Foster in 1974, brought back lots of memories among readers.
The photographs were taken shortly before the area was cleared for demolition, and captured a community which appeared to have been untouched by the changes sweeping through Britain in the 1960s and 70s.
The photographs were taken shortly before the area was cleared for demolition, and captured a community which appeared to have been untouched by the changes sweeping through Britain in the 1960s and 70s.
Roger Jeavons, 76, says the pictures perfectly capture the atmosphere of the area.
"It was like a timewarp back to Dickens's time," he says.
"The houses were so old, it was like stepping back in time.
"They were very basic, but nobody knew any different.
He says his childhood friend Maurice Blud immediately recognised the picture of his mother Beattie, buying her meat from Jack Leach the butcher's.
Maureen Leach, also recognised her mother-in-law, Marjorie Leach, who was serving behind the counter of the shop she ran with her husband.
Sue Lorimer immediately spotted her mother Joan Harriman behind the counter of the newsagent's which was owned by Fred Barrett.
Ken Newman, now 78, has fond memories of Jack Williams the greengrocer, and his wife May, as he used to work as a delivery boy for them.
"I used to go there after school four nights a week, and then on Saturday mornings," he recalls.
Ken, who moved to the area as a baby, adds: "We would sit on the fence at the Wolves car park, at the back of the North Bank, to watch the players train in the 50s and early 60s.
"Sometimes they would give us a spare ball, and ask us to play a bit further up."
Ken, who now lives in Blakesley Avenue, Claregate, recognises the picture of the man behind the bar of a pub as Jack Leek, who was landlord of The Feathers, now a university building.
"I remember his daughter Barbara, and his wife Betty, they also had a son Graham who was a police officer," he says.
Jean Court, now 75, and living in Proberts Road, Oxley, lived at 139 North Street from the age of about eight.
"We lived next-door-but-one from the barber Ted McGovern, right opposite The Feathers.
"The McGoverns moved away, but I remember him coming back to cut my hair at home," she says.
"At the top of Vincent Street there was a Mrs Sadler, and the Wolves players used to lodge at her house."
Roger reckons the cheery man in the barber shop was Ted McGovern himself, his coat on ready to finish for the day.
Betty Tod, or Betty Maddison as she was then, lived in North Street from 1965 to 66, with her then-husband Jim working as a barman at The Feathers.
"The toilet was down the yard, there was no bathroom, and the kitchen was down the yard," says Betty, now 79 and living in Compton.
"The rent was £4 a week, and you just had to suffer it. It was pretty rough."
Claire Mason recognised herself as the young mother holding her baby in the self-service supermarket.
"I can't remember having my picture taken, but there was a lot going on around that time," says Claire, now 74.
Pat Morton was the second cousin of Geoff O'Connor the cobbler, and remembers his shop on the corner of Molineux Street.
"Both he and his late father Jim, in the days of old leather football boots, used to change the studs for the club's players," she says.
"When the redevelopment happened he was devastated to lose his business."
