AMY'S STORES

Last stop before Tidemills beach.

The lady on the right is Mary Dyer Amy owner of the shop. In front of her are her 2 grandsons, on the right William Ernest Bussey and left Lawrence Blann.

Any idea of the date of the picture Lorna ?

-  Editors

And whose is the huge face in the bay window? Spooky.

Hi Ron, if you look at upper sashes on both top and bottom bay windows with a magnifying glass, there appears to be a huge face in each. How spooky is that?????.

I would date the photo as about 1913/1914. The youngest boy in the photo, my grandfather, was born in 1909 and I would guess he's 4 or 5 in that photo (he is standing on the step). Laurie, the other boy, was born in 1904.

Oh my God! I used to love this shop, my mother used to work in the Railway pub so I was in and out of here nearly every day, and just down the road on the other side was a bakery which was very good!

These pictures evoke so many memories. I spent all my childhood here. Remember buying our first sweets here when they came off ration after the war, the excitement!! And of course we were in and out all the time running errands for various relatives and neighbours. Then when I got a little older I would go in every afternoon to buy a 'Crunchie' from Mr Foster after school! Yes, the bakery was very good, Mum would send us there in the early morning to buy warm rolls for our breakfast, and at Christmas people would take their turkeys or other large joints to be roasted in the big bread oven. And who remembers Mrs Hoey's fruit and veg shop in Clifton Terrace, she always displayed her best produce in beautiful baskets on a table outside. Then there was the shop on the corner opposite 'The Engineer', the name of which eludes me for the moment, which masqueraded as a fruit and veg and grocery shop, and where we used to buy 'penny drinks', but which in reality made most of its living as an illicit betting shop!

Just remembered the name of the other shop - it was 'Harman's'!

There was a bus stop outside this shop and in the early sixties, in the school summer holidays, friends and I would get off there, stock up with goodies from the shop, then walk to the east side beach for a day on the beach. Great fun, great days !

Lawrence Blann was my Mother Mary Ingram (nee Brownings) cousin. He owned the refuse collection company which worked for the Newhaven Council during and after the 2nd World War.