Ann, I do not remember a sweete shop. The chips I recall did not match Ginesi's, or even Fusco's.
But, as I keep saing, I'm gettig old.

Dabbler, the sweetie shop was one of 3 shops Montgomerys owned. They had the chip shop, an ice-cream parlour and next door, the last shop in the row, was the confectioners.

Ted, I well remember looking into the living quarters of the shop and seeing the bright fire and cosy room. Do you remember the large boxes of chocolates that were displayed on the high shelves around Christmas time. As well as Cadburys I seem to remember Needlers as being a good chcolate too.

Coming from the Convent Hill, Montgomery s sweetie shop was the first, then the chip shop and after it the ice cream parlour´. When I was courting herself and we met in Market Sq. to go to the pictures on Saturday nights when I could afford it I stopped there to buy her a box of sweets. The shop was always warm and clean.I remember once when I gave the lady half a crown to pay for the sweets which cost about 1/6 she gave me change. I pocketed the change without checking it and she reprimanded me in a friendly way , saying " You must always check your change, I could have given you too little"!
A lesson for the future.
donald

Donald, I think Low Road and Hilden people frequented the Castle Street area of Lisburn more than those from other parts of the town. That's why I think Dabbler can't remember Montgomery's sweet shop. He probably wasn't round there that much.

The Convent School being in Seymour Street, girls attending it, wherever they came from, would have been familiar with Montgomery's, having to pass it each morning. Not so the boys attending the Boys' School in Chapel Hill, which was their misfortune. Well, unless they were from Hilden or Low Road.

Ann, Didn't that Victor Parkinson used to have a shop in Antrim St on the left turning in from Bow Street.? Mauri

Mauri
Victor Parkinson had newsagents shop in Seymour shop beside Georgie Wrights hairdressers and also sold sweets.
donald

mauri
i remember a victor parkinson shop in antrim street just below the corner house left hand side.

dabbler
i remember montgomerys chips as very nice. but i think i remember greasy chips at lower fusco,s near the picture queque. but memories are funny at times?
tom

Mauri,

My aunt had a friend lived in Antrim St. near Parky's (as she called him) shop. Nice wee dark haired man.

Donald,

Was the shop in Castle St. not called Parker's,.? The shop was dark & the men were tall & country looking, strong fellows.

Joe tells me one of the sons was a carpenter, who worked in Connor & Bailey's.

Pat

Does anyone remember the shop next door to Parkers in Castle St.?

Two little old ladies owned it & when at the Convent the nun used to send two of us with the Black Baby money in a bag to them. They emptied the small coins onto the counter, all the pennies & half-pennies. We watches, mesmerised, as they deftly flicked each coin from the counter into another bag, counting as they went swiftly through the pile. When am counting change now that is the way I do it too.

Then they gave us the value in large coins or maybe a £5 note.

I was one of the lucky ones to always take the money to them & they gave us a sweet or a toffee for ourselves too.

I forget the name of this shop, it was real old fashioned & sold all the old fashioned sweets, dolly mixtures, clove rock, brandy balls, bird's nests, kali-suckers, lollipops, liquorice strings & pipes, sweetie cigarettes & real & cigarettes in 5's packets.

The two old ladies were out of the past as well. Wore long skirts & shoulder shawls. We loved going there & escaping school for a half-hour each week.

Anyone remember it.? Was it Anderson's.?

Pat

Pat
I cannot remember where Parkers was, just past the Castle St entrance to the Cathedral was the shop and cafe I,m talking about. Montgomery s did not sell single cigarettes so we went there. There was a cafe in the rear. I,m 100% sure that Victor Parkinson had his newsagents in Seymour St. Lowroader can verify this no doubt. Other shops there were Mercers fruit shop, Just,s radio shop and a grocery store beside the Infirmary. On the corner of Millbrook McKeowns bakery opened a branch around 1948/49 and Robinsons had a shop and there was a chemist also
donald

Hi Pat I can only remember one old Lady in that shop and she was called Miss or Mrs Magee would that ring a bell ? Regards Ted

Pat, there was a shop in Seymour Street called Parkers. As you say, there were two, big, strong, country looking sons always around. I don't know what they sold but I was never in this shop.

Victor Parkinson (Parky) owned a shop nearby. I think he sold veg, potatoes, sweets, bits of everything.

I cannot remember the shop you and Tom mention in Antrim Street.

Pat, once more, before my time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re the shops in Seymour Street.
Mckeowns was on the corner with Millbrook.
Geordie Wrights - Hairderessers.
McCabes - Fruiterer
Moody Parkers - Newsagent etc.
(Moody also kept cows up the Belsize Road and walked them down each evening to be milked behind the shop. There was a lane at the back of McKeowns leading off Millbrook).
I do not remember any shops after Parkers until you came to:
Just's - TV and Ice cream
Mercers - Fruiterer
The next business was Stevenson's garage just before the lane down to the convent school.
Past this lane was a gate to a large yard where Tommy Just made his ice cream.
Surgery, then
Convent.

IMO there was no discussion about the best fish and chips in Lisburn - Montgomery were out on their own and the fish especially was enhanced by the batter.

Ted @ Pat,
I was a frequent Customer in that wee sweety shop.It was just a short walk from 1 Victoria Cres. where my Grannie @ Grampa lived.
The name of the little old lady was Maggie Magee. Close by was Moody Parker who milked cows and sold milk. Moody drove his cows up a laneway at the top of Millbrook to where he milked them.
Josef Locke also kept his Pony @ Trap up the same laneway.
L.D.

Should have added a sweet shop between McCabes and Moody Parke according to the Boss.

LD Thanks, Maggie! it was, Regarding Moddie I also remembering him droving the cattle to and fro to Barley Hill to graze before they put the bunglows there, many's a time I helped to drive them to the sheds behind the shop, (Memories) Regards Ted

Parkers was the first shop after Millbrook going towards town,Moody Parker was the owner ,he also Kept Cattle in a shed at the back,Jimmy Doran had the Grocery on the opposite side of the road, He was the Father of Mina Doran who Played in the radio programme "The Mc Cooeys" with James Young,
Ps. The Name might have been Dornan, the memory fades at times

Am I having another senior moment confusing Parker with Parkinson? Victor ( probably Moodie,s son ) who owned or ran it in the early 60s was very friendly with Ned Close the stationmaster at Hilden Halt. But again I,m not getting any younger.
donald

Donald, as far as I can recall, I'm almost 100% sure that there were two shops, one owned by a man called Parker and the other by Victor Parkinson.

the mccabes fruit shop at millbrook i used to help out there at times. it belonged to my uncle jack [dads brother] and aunt aggie tom

Just to confuse matters further, a thought came into my head that there was a shop called Cowans in Seymour Street.

Is this the beginning of the end????????

Low Roader, help me in my confusion. Ask the boss as she will probably know best.

As well as Victor Parkinson's shop, was there another shop which sold I know not?. It's the one Pat mentioned as having two hefty big fellows serving. I was never in this shop.

The question is: What was the name of this shop? Was it Cowans?

Ann, Regarding Moddie Parkers I doubt if he carried much stock of anything except milk and as you say the family were all very tall mother included and they were always about the front of the shop I think it was used as a front room, and as LD confirmed Maggie Magee's was next door , it then became Victor Parkinson's in later years, Regards Ted

Ann,

Your question has been answered. Thanks all for the info. about the "wee shop" Magees, one of those places that would always stay in your memory.


I remember Tommy Just's well too, it used to be an electrical shop, sold radios if I remember rightly. Tommy was a jokey man & a big fellow worked with him who later was in the Electrical Board. Sometimes his daughter served in the shop, was it Sheila.?


Mercer's was next door, another nice shop & people. Their fruit was on show outside the shop, I will never forget their Kemp apples,(never see them now) delicious succulent taste. 1 penny each then.
Mercer's was another Montogomery's ,a tiny window at floor level showed a cosy living room inside. Very quaint & a draw for a child's imagination. They had one nice daughter with a lovely name, Beth

A walk down memory lane.Pat

Thanks to all who helped with the information.

SO, there WAS a Parker's shop plus a Parkinson's shop. Where did I get the name Cowan from? Maybe it was to do with the cows Parkers walked down Millbrook, although I don't remember that.

Thanks for that, Victor Parkinson was not a figment of my imaganation and I,m not suffering ( yet ) from dementia.

Talking about Kemp apples for 1d. I remember Dan and Lizzie Fitzsimmons who lived in Bridge St Hilden facing the girls entrance to Hilden school, they made toffee apples with Kemp apples skewered on pieces of firewood, dipped in toffee and left to cool on the hearth in front of the open fire. Unthinkable today for hygienic reasons but we all survived.
It was before my time, but an old Hildener, Billy Taylor who also lived in Bridge St telling me about his experience as a youth, Dan and Lizzie,s wedding feast was a bonfire in the square in Bridge St. where later the Hilden bus turned around, the guests roasted spuds, sang and danced.
those were the days
Another blast from the past is in Ton Trainor,s house ( Where else but Bridge St )around Xmas when pubs were not allowed to open was for this time a sheebeen, he had drink delivered from a Lisburn publican and the locals came and had a wee drink in his house

Pat
I think the name of the Just daughter was Betty

donald

Ted, you can have it on good authority (me) that Mrs Mongomery's name was Lena (nee Topping); she was my late husband's Aunt, his father was Billie Topping and there was a very large family of them. Another Uncle (Charlie) ran the Ice cream business while Stewarty and Victor both worked in the fish and chop shop. Stewarty made the best fish and chips ever and to this day I don't think they can be equalled. Victor set up the tables with gleaming knives and forks which he had polished up at wherever he worked during the day. Another brother ran a little fruit and veg shop between the eateries ( I think his name was Geordie) he never married. My memories of the ice cream parlour was the scraping of the chairs on the red tiled floor and the little round tables, not forgetting of course their delicious ice cream with the butterscotch. They would never tell you how that butterscotch was made. My Mother used to meet up every Saturday with a lady from Millbrook by the name of Bella Braithwaite in the ice cream parlour and Bella always had us in stitches. I also recall how one time Lena was alone in her sweetie shop and a hood came in demanding the takings. He did not know who he was dealing with as the boul Lena turned round,lifted a large sweetie bottle from the shelf behind her and let him have it! These days she would be liable to be put in jail for doing so!

Several votes there for Montgomery's chips, so maybe I ate them after a Mars bar, and that spoiled the taste.
Ginesi's for me, though. Mind you, I tasted as good or better in the seventies, in Brighton.

Aldene, Wasn't it Sammy Topping who had the fruit and vegatable shop, he had been in the RAF during the war then worked in Herbie Topping's pub (The Stores) for a while as a barman before opening his own shop.I can vaguely remember talking to him about it. He was another brother of Herbie's not to be confused with the other Sammy, Herbie's son. Mauri