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Looking west from the public library

Ladies’ Mile Road connects Old Patcham with its newer estates. The first photograph was taken looking west from the Public Library (beside Warmdene School).

The second photograph shows the comprehensive shopping parade at Ladies’ Mile. Prominent shops in photo are a hairdressers, butchers, dairy, cleaners and chemists

Ladies Mile Road looking west c.1960.
Photo sent by Martin Nimmo 25-01-03
Ladies Mile Road shops c.1960.
Photo sent by Martin Nimmo 25-01-03

Comments about this page

  • The above picture was taken after 1966.

    By David Maynard (23/07/2007)
  • My uncle who has just recently passed away had a barber’s shop in Patcham for many years, his name was Peter Tamlyn.  I wonder if any one remembers him?  I don’t know the name of the street where the shop was.

    By Audrey Paul (17/06/2008)
  • I lived up Ladies Mile Road in the 70s. I used to walk down to the shops with my friend Liz from over the road, and her labrador, Saba. We always used to stop at the butcher’s, who used to give Saba a bone, which he carried lovingly back up the hill! I also remember dear old Charlie who ran the Unwin’s store.

    By Mel from Hove (01/07/2008)
  • I remember ‘Pete’s’, the barbers. You can see the barbers poles in the photo of Ladies Mile Rd. The salon was squeezed into one of the hallways that led to the upstairs flats. He was next door to Holyers the butchers. Pete was a quiet and polite chap who cut my hair from about 1950 until 1961 when I joined the RAF.

    By Michael Wheeler (27/08/2008)
  • Neville I remember ‘The Soldiers of the Queen’ float, with your Mum bashing out the tune on a piano hidden behind a curtain. Somewhere I think may still have a picture of the float. Others in the picture Jane Rutherford, Terry King, Colin Botting.

    By PipinHove (10/01/2010)
  • Well hello Neville. What a blast from the past. I wonder if you ever wish you still had your prized mini? I first met you at the tender age of 14 when I walked my dog past and we had a chat about a tiny sticker you had on the windscreen. My sister Wendy and I went out with you and your friend (John?) and got into dreadful trouble when the parents found out you were 21 and John even older. I had forgotten some of those days. Thank you for triggering the grey cells.

    By Patricia Silsby (22/07/2010)
  • Goodness, Pat, surely Wendy was so much younger! Didn’t you live in Stoneleigh or Dale Crescent or thereabouts? Yes, John (Trendell) had an old M.G. (he sadly passed away two years ago) and when we called to meet you one day your Dad’s eyes were like saucers when he answered the door as he looked over our shoulders at the M.G. which we’d left with its engine running, as there was just a cloud of smoke in the road. I’m in Hurstpierpoint now, retired, but still spending my summers getting into scrapes touring Europe with a 60 yr old motorbike and a tent. Plus ca change!

    By Neville (12/06/2011)
  • Don’t you just love these sites? Neville, I was sorry to hear about John. Maybe he and Wendy have gotten together for a drink in the spirit world as she passed away from cancer in April. It’s been a long journey since the Wilmington Way days. I was in England (I live in Australia) from April to July and went over all the old stomping grounds, including having a drink at The Ladies Mile pub.. not much change there, oh the memories!. I can see you on a vintage motor bike cruising around Europe, what a life!. And why not. May you be able to do so for many more years yet.

    By Patricia Silsby (05/09/2011)
  • I remember having my hair cut at the barbers ‘in between the shops’ in Ladies Mile Road. I was quite young and for the small kids like me he had a plank of wood he put across the arms of the chair and I sat up on that so he could cut our hair at a comfortable height (and we could see the mirror I suppose).

    By Cliff (11/01/2012)
  • Myself and my family now own Unwins shop and flat. Does any one know what it was before?

    By Zack Nagle (03/07/2012)
  • I know Charlie who worked for Unwin’s in the late 60s-70s and he used to help us out with raffle prizes for the 44th Scouts. Shame, I used to like old charlie. I think he had a wife but she died before I knew him. Any one remember the VG stores run by Norman and Joyce Reed after Gravleys stores or the hardware store opposite, Home’n Hardware run by their son in law Ron Edmonds and Linda Reed. Maybe you remember Starns hardware shop over the hill run by Norman Reed. ron101@ntlworld.com

    By Ron Edmonds (04/07/2012)
  • Zack, I have just finished writing up my PhD on interwar Patcham, so, rather sadly live in the near past. My Kelly’s directories show that address -39LMR- as having been since the interwar, until well into the 1950s, as the Petersfield Laundry and Flinn’s Dry Cleaners.

    By Geoffrey Mead (06/07/2012)
  • Wow! Reading this gave me some wonderful childhood memories.  My family lived at 146 Mackie Avenue which at the time was a Tamplins wine stores in the row of shop opposite the green. Does anyone remember this shop?

    By Anthony Seaborne (20/10/2013)
  • Further to my previous comment: The shop was known as Mackle Avenue Wine Stores and we lived there in the early 1940s. My dad. Raymond Seaborne, was the shop manager. Can this jog any memories?

    By Anthony Seaborne (20/10/2013)
  • Anthony, I remember the Wine Stores off Licence from my youth in the 60s and 70s. I seem to remember it having a long pub type counter/bar, beer barrels and a very distinctive smell (must’ve been the alcohol).

    By Vaughan Taylor (25/10/2013)
  • The off licence opposite the green was, as I remember, run by an old Scottish (I think) couple called Macallister. It was and is still, well in my family anyway, called Wiggy’s as the old chap wore a very distinctive toupe. I also remember Peter the barber and sitting on that wooden plank.

    By Vaughan Taylor (26/10/2013)
  • In answer to Audrey Paul’s post from 2008.  Peter Tamlyn was MY barber between the years of 1963 (or 2) to around 1967 when I left Patcham.  His barbershop was on Ladie’s Mile Road just down from the Church across from the big play field.

    By John Huchings (10/11/2016)
  • Just found this interesting site. I lived over the dairy with my parents from 1962 to 1973. Next door lived teacher Pete Holland  with his family over Holyers, the butchers. Mr Barret had the sweet shop and the chemist was run by Mr Connick. Julie Foster’s father had an estate agents. I could go on and on.

    By Pam Turney (16/10/2018)

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