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Many weekly wage earners would shop weekly. They would buy a Blue Bag to blue the washing, Hudson’s soap-costing twopence - to put in the boiler and of course washing soda. It was not until later that preparations such as Persil were introduced.

When Lever Brothers introduced a scented soap in a cardboard box, they had an offer that if you bought a box full you would get a free linen handkerchief. Her father would sell the soap separately and as a result her mother had a plentiful supply of handkerchiefs.

Then there was an Oxo offer, when you had saved sufficient coupons you could have a toy doll. How she longed for that dolls her father had it displayed in the shop window. For months She was eventually was allowed to have it but it was dusty and dirty by then. Nevertheless it was still nice to get. This was the start of advertising.

In those days there was no need to advertise, every product sold it’s self. People knew what they wanted and went out and bought it. When advertising was introduced my Grandfather certainly tried all the new marketing techniques, including free gifts. He did not advertise in the newspaper, he would not waste his money like in that way.

The shop had an order boy who had a bike with a carrier fitted. He came after school and took out gallons of oil for delivery. They sold a lot of oil. The customers brought their own can, which was filled from a huge tank with a tap fitted.

Dorothy did not know where it came from but it was hard work, a lot of unnecessary hard work! Her grandfather did not employ staff; he had the family to do that, including two uncles, my father and my mother. Her aunt looked after the shop next door. If anyone else came on the scene they were paid just pennies; they almost worked for nothing. Wages were very poor in those days; they must have been very poor. The children did not work in the shop if they could help it but if her grandfather saw them he would always give them a job. They would have to sweep out the shop or sweep the pavement outside the shop.

Wooden shutters were put over the windows and the door every night. They remained there all day on Sunday for nobody worked on a Sunday, not even my grandfather. The 1910 Shops Act was brought in to protect ladies who worked in drapers. They worked from early morning to late at night. A philanthropist put it to Parliament that they should work proper hours and have time off. Another act changed the shop opening times. Instead of opening at six am and closing after midnight provision was made for shops to open at nine am and close at six or seven p.m. and an hour later on Friday and nine p.m. on Saturday

Through the act, shop assistants were required to have a half-day off a week either on a Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday. Her father blessed this act every time he sat down to supper. She didn’t know how it went through Parliament and now it upset her to think people have to work on a Sunday. They had to work on a Saturday, one of the busiest days of the week but they always spent Sunday with their families. She did not always go to church, though her grandfather would put on his top hat and go to Chapel in the evenings.

Everyone knew everybody else in Wembley in those days. Dorothy’s mother Marie and aunt used to go upstairs to their grandfather’s room, which overlooked the main Street and watch the people going by. They looked at the ladies hats and made comments such as: “She’s no better than she ought to be!” and “ That’s not her husband,

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