26 Hobart Road, Cambridge

26 Hobart Road

1939

Reginald F Bell, b 1909, foreman plasterer

Ada, b 1909

Gwendoline ‘Wendy’, b 1933

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1953 Reginald Bell

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In 2003 Wendy Maskell née Bell wrote to the Museum with her reminiscences of Romsey Town.

I grew up during the 2nd World War in Hobart Road and have memories of those days. The shops in those days were family owned and there was personal service. I particularly the remember the two Co-ops in Romsey Town. One is still there – now a supermarket (on the corner of Catharine Street) and the other (known as Branch No. 21) was at 296 Mill Road (next door to the barber’s shop which is now ‘Ted Bailey’s’) and which later became a launderette. I remember the Co-op very well and even my mum’s Co-op No. (Dividend No.) and that of our elderly next door neighbour in Hobart Road, as I shopped for both mum and Mrs Starling on occasion.

It was said that one could be born and die in Romsey Town and have everything one needed here in between without ever leaving Mill Road such was the diversity of the shops, – and of course what is now Ditchburn Place was the Mill Road Maternity Hospital. The cemetery is still there, almost next door! So, you see, we catered for in Mill Road from birth to death!!!