Title
Memories of St Nicholas Circle
Subject
Changing Leicester
Description
Doll (Doris) Oliver and Brenda Brewster recall the St Nicholas Circle area in the 1940s
Creator
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Source
Recording with the East Midlands Oral History Archive. Uncatalogued.
Publisher
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Date
1940s
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Oral history
Original Format
.wav
Duration
2min 32sec
Bit Rate/Frequency
128kbps
Transcription
Can you just describe what St Nicholas Square was like at that time? Since the mid ‘40s isn't it?
Well the trams run from the town, run by our house and down Applegate Street didn't it?
Yeah.
What was your address?
60 St Nicholas Street. It was like a little square with a couple of shops, there was a watchmakers, wasn't there.
Well, we were next door to a pub, we lived next door to a pub.
Northampton Arms.
A pub called Northampton Arms.
And Thornton Lane, opposite there was a place called Wathes. It was a horse and carts that used to bring the...
Railway was horse and carts. Coal man was horse and carts. Because we used to have coal delivered through the house and it was put in a big hole in the pavement.
Into our cellar.
They pulled it back and it fell into a cellar. In fact, the two cellars underneath the house were bigger than the rest of the house.
And it was used for air raid shelters at the time.
I was trying to figure out how many families we actually knew around there because there wasn't a lot of, very rare you had children living around there. It was, yeah, there was Mrs. Bird with her two, Mr. and Mrs. Bird and their two daughters.
Did you know Carey's Cottage?
Yes.
We knew, well, we used to call them Mr. and Mrs. Carey, but they weren't.
They were the caretakers.
They were the caretakers, but to us, they were Mr. and Mrs. Carey, weren't they?
Yeah.
And he used to wear one of these tricorn hats things at times. Or the big hat, you know, like the Quakers used to wear, he wore one of those as well, because it was a cottage one side, I don't know, where they lived, and then there was a cottage next door. Tiny little weeny, weeny cottages there were.
And across the road, there was a chapel running along, say that's the chapel, there was a graveyard at the side of it so it was obviously used at some time as families, for families, because there were family graves there. Quite a few family graves.
Yeah, there were. Yeah. It was a small graveyard but there was a lot in it, wasn’t there?
Well the trams run from the town, run by our house and down Applegate Street didn't it?
Yeah.
What was your address?
60 St Nicholas Street. It was like a little square with a couple of shops, there was a watchmakers, wasn't there.
Well, we were next door to a pub, we lived next door to a pub.
Northampton Arms.
A pub called Northampton Arms.
And Thornton Lane, opposite there was a place called Wathes. It was a horse and carts that used to bring the...
Railway was horse and carts. Coal man was horse and carts. Because we used to have coal delivered through the house and it was put in a big hole in the pavement.
Into our cellar.
They pulled it back and it fell into a cellar. In fact, the two cellars underneath the house were bigger than the rest of the house.
And it was used for air raid shelters at the time.
I was trying to figure out how many families we actually knew around there because there wasn't a lot of, very rare you had children living around there. It was, yeah, there was Mrs. Bird with her two, Mr. and Mrs. Bird and their two daughters.
Did you know Carey's Cottage?
Yes.
We knew, well, we used to call them Mr. and Mrs. Carey, but they weren't.
They were the caretakers.
They were the caretakers, but to us, they were Mr. and Mrs. Carey, weren't they?
Yeah.
And he used to wear one of these tricorn hats things at times. Or the big hat, you know, like the Quakers used to wear, he wore one of those as well, because it was a cottage one side, I don't know, where they lived, and then there was a cottage next door. Tiny little weeny, weeny cottages there were.
And across the road, there was a chapel running along, say that's the chapel, there was a graveyard at the side of it so it was obviously used at some time as families, for families, because there were family graves there. Quite a few family graves.
Yeah, there were. Yeah. It was a small graveyard but there was a lot in it, wasn’t there?
Interviewer
Jenny Escritt
Interviewee
Doll (Doris) Oliver and Brenda Brewster
Location
Interviewee's home address
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