Stuart Haywood, of Church Gresley, continues sharing his childhood memories of growing up in and around the village of Newhall during the war years. There were plenty of interesting shops to buy from but the challenge was keeping within the family budget.

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Swadlincote High Street had many chain store grocers in addition to its local traders. Among the national companies were Maypole, Perks, Melias, Liptons and the Co-op. The local traders included Fletchers and Merchants.

The shops, which were almost an institution, were the Salts' chain. They sold almost everything except food. They had shops at intervals all the way down the High Street. An unusual feature of the company was the use of Lamson tubes to take the customers' cash from the sale point to the cashier's office.

I used to help out with the shopping on a Saturday morning. My mother would walk down the High Street and weigh up which items were the best value. The purchasing would then be done on the way back. By this method, she stretched the limited budget to its maximum.

At that time, my mother was trying to make 32s 6d (£1.62p) last the week. My grandad's pension at the time was 10s (50p), although this rose to 26s (£1.30p) in 1946.

There was also a good range of small shops in Newhall. Every street had a convenient shop, many of them being the converted front room of a cottage, which the owner had managed to cram full of an amazing array of goods.

The main shop at that time, however, was the Co-operative Society. Every village boasted its own Co-op in those days.

If you were a member of the Society you were issued with your own personal account number and all your transactions were recorded at the end of the year, totaled up and a dividend declared.

This was usually slightly over 1s (5p) in the pound and, based on this, everyone's personal discount would then be calculated. Great excitement was generated in the village when it was pay-out day.

One of my first paid jobs was collecting groceries for one of our neighbours, Mrs O'Hanlon, from the Co-op.

Mrs O'Hanlon lived across the road. I would collect her order and money and set off for the shop. The route took me down Wood Lane and through Matt's Yard, which went round the spoil heap of a defunct colliery.

I always found the shop a fascinating place. I liked to watch the various activities as a I waited for the order to be put up. I was particularly interested in the operation of the bacon slicer which seemed to cut the bacon extremely thinly at an incredible speed. Sugar was put in blue bags and cheese cut up with a cheese wire.

The money-taking system was also, to me, incredible. Overhead wires ran from the counters to a small hole in the wall, behind which was the cashier's office. Attached to the wire was a ball-like container which unscrewed into two halves.

Once my bill had been calculated and I had presented the pound note, the assistant placed the bill and money in the ball and screwed it up. He then pulled a piece of elastic and the ball shot through the hole in the wall. A few seconds later, it reappeared containing the change.

For performing this service, I was paid a princely sum of 6d (2.5p) by Mrs O'Hanlon. It may not seem a lot by today's standards but it was enough to buy a few treats.

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