1. In the 1950's this was the Post Office. The Post Mistress died of breast cancer and upon her illness and death the Post office closed. Number 11 on the map took over the operation of the Post Office.

2. In the 1950's this house was a wool and cotton shop supplying knitting and sewing supplies. Mrs. Lawson ran the shop, her husband Jeff worked for Lawson & Ellis. They had two sons John and Alan. The shop closed sometime in the late 1960's when the family moved to a new house on the Lancaster Drive estate.

3. In the 1950's this shop, called 'Bartlett's" (the name of the owner), was a general grocery store, it closed sometime in the 1970's when the street was demolished.

4. In the 1950's this was the village butchers shop called "Lofthouse Butchers" (Lofthouse was the family name of the owners) with the shop at the front and meat freezer rooms at the back. There was no accommodation at this shop. The butchers operated until the 1980's when it succumbed to supermarket pressure and was closed and converted back to a house.

5. This shop called Lords (the surname of the owners) opened as a cooked meat, packaged food and general grocery shop in the 1960's and continued operation until the retirement of the owners in the 1980's. It was the only shop to offer a grocery delivery service to elderly house bound pensioners, which was done by motor car.

6. In the 1950's this was a painting and decorating supply shop, although mainly used as a storage facility rather than a shop. It closed in the 1960's.

7. In the 1950's this was a wooden construction standalone building operated as a take-away fish & chips shop. Opening for lunch and tea it was very popular amongst the village people. It was bought and sold many times by different owners (probably because it was so small), and at one time was operated by Mrs. Lawson (see 2 above) after she moved out of the village. Always popular it finally closed completely in the 1990's and is in 2014 a derelict building.

8. In the 1950's this was a "Co-operative Society" shop offering all the grocery, packaged and dry goods associated with the Co-operative group. It closed in the 1960's and was converted back to housing.

9. In the 1950's this was Halliday's Shop (Halliday the surname of the owners), a bread bakery, grocery, dry goods and confectionary shop. It took up two buildings. The end building being the house and the adjacent one being the bakery and shop. The shop operated until the three spinster sisters (Jenny, Nellie and ????) who ran it retired in the 1980's. Jenny, the eldest, was the "boss" and served in the shop, Nellie appeared to be a "general factotum" and ????? tended the ovens and prepared and baked the bread.

(During 1978 whilst working for Delyn Borough Council, I met the councils Works and Maintenance Manager who told me he had been stationed in Low Moor Mill during World War II (the mill was used as a home guard training facility during the war years) with the Royal Engineers. He said that at that time there were tea rooms above the shop where he and other soldiers used to have afternoon tea and sandwiches. He described the sisters as very jolly ladies).

10. In the 1950's this was a bakery owned and run by the Soul family with "Benny" Soul running the bakery known in the village as "Benny's Bake House." The bakery closed in the late 1950's and remained empty for some years. In the early 1960's it was loaned to the Low Moor Boy Scouts as their HQ. As a boy scout I helped with simple renovation work on the building which consisted of chipping off years of whitewash and plaster from the walls to get back to the original stonework. As the plaster was removed, thousands of dead cockroaches were found behind the plasterwork. I hate to think what the bakery was like when it was operating although the villagers always said that Benny's bread was the best they had ever tasted. The building was converted back to housing in the 1970's.

11. In the 1950's this was Tattersall's Newsagents and from the 1960's also the Post Office. The shop sold newspapers, tobacco, confectionary and convenience foods. I worked there as a newspaper delivery boy from 1962 until 1966. When Tommy Tattersall and his wife retired the shop was sold a few times, however it lost more and more customers as supermarkets in Clitheroe and peoples greater access to motor cars took people to better shopping further afield. The shop finally closed in the early 2000's and was the last shop to close in the village.

Notes:

1. Supermarkets had a great effect on the small shop across the UK, offering wider ranges of goods and cheaper prices. The first one to open in Clitheroe was Hilliard's in the 1970's, replacing the King Lane Cinema, and was a fairly modest supermarket. Following on from this Booths, Kwik-Save, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl and in 2015 Aldi all opened, although Hilliard's and Kwik-Save closed as the bigger supermarket chains took over.

2. Just outside the entrance to the village, at the junction of Edisford Road and St. Pauls Street (not shown on this map) there was a garage and petrol station in the 1950's. This variously changed hands over the years with petrol sales ending in the 1970's or 80's, and the facility becoming a car sales showroom. Finally closing in 2010 it has been converted and reopened as a "Safeway" Mini-Market in 2011. The first positive move in retail since the long decline from the 1950's.

3. The houses of New Row, Cross Street, Eastford Place, Saint Annes Square, the Saint Annes Square side of High Street and the derelict school were all demolished in the 1970's and replaced by a modern block of sheltered housing for the elderly.

4. Albert Street was also demolished in the 1970's, and the remaining houses on High Street and the houses on the Albert Street side of Nelson Street had extended yards / gardens attached to them.

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