Memories of H E Phillips

News that the hardware store H E Phillips was to close after 88 years (Evening Telegraph, April 9th and 10th 2003) brought back happy childhood memories for Mrs Marjorie Brodie (nee Beaufoy), now of Swan Lane, who was born in Albert Street, Hillfields in 1915 - the same year as the business was set up. 

Marjorie writes "I remember H E Phillips in Hillfields since the early 20s. I can recall 'old lady' Phillips sitting in a chair by a little fireplace in the two-windowed shop, she would be poking the ashes out to get a blaze in the winter.
"I would be sent to the shop for nails to fix the garden fence, or tacks for my dad to mend our shoes. I think then you could get almost anything there.
"I remember Pat Phillips in his Rolls, he always had a smile for you or a wave. I remember Joan, Pat's sister, as a very smart girl.
" I also remember Curzons, the cake shop next door, the Maypole opposite, Hurrels the grocers, Stanbridge the butchers, on the other corner of Canterbury Street, Douthwaites the chemist, all lovely clean shops. You never needed to go into town for anything. Hillfields was more like a village we all knew each other. I spent lovely happy childhood days there."

From the Coventry Evening Telegraph, 22nd April 2003, article by David McGrory.

Reproduced with kind permission of the Coventry Evening Telegraph. 

This page was last updated 28/04/03

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