Salisbury

We took the train to Salisbury today. This was a nostalgia trip for me as I had not been to the city since I was a child, besides for the funeral of my aunt. Salisbury was the home of my mother and we went looking for places associated with her childhood. We found the house where her and her three sisters were brought up, a small Victorian terrace, part of a block of six. We also found the bakery and cafe where her grandparents, my great grandparents, used to live and work. It is now a barbers, but the separate front door used to access the flat above is still there. She used to go there as a child with her sister, Paddy, and hide under the counter sampling the faggots and peas, and playing in the back on a home made swing. The war memorial in Market Square had the name of my grandfather's brother as one of the fallen in the great war.

We spent quite some time exploring the city centre and the cathedral close, the photo is one I took of the cloisters. The hustle and bustle of the market square and the old streets haven't changed, though the London Road, where my grandparents used to live later in live, has become a monstrosity of urban flyover dual carriageway, a far cry from the quiet road I used to look out of my bedroom window at and dream of travelling that road to London. I think the house, Rockvale, has been demolished to build a roundabout.

I couldn't find the cafe I used to go to with my mother on Market Square, but Ann and I had a late lunch/early tea at Pizza Express, not quite the same!