Express & Star
Close

'It was basic and short of creature comforts - but I loved it' - Memories of Shropshire's 19th century terraced rows demolished in 1960s

Tin bath in the garden, primitive outside toilet - but happy memories of a lost community near Dawley

Plus
By Toby Neal
Published
Supporting image for story: 'It was basic and short of creature comforts - but I loved it' - Memories of Shropshire's 19th century terraced rows demolished in 1960s
nostalgia pic. Hinkshay. nostalgia pic. Dawley. nostalgia pic in colour. Marie Wilks, as she was then, on a patch of grass at the bottom of Single Row, Hinkshay, around the mid-1960s. Marie, now Marie Barber living near Wem, says she must be about five in the picture. “I am with a little black poodle called Ricky which belonged to Mrs Harper. That was at the bottom of Single Row. I remember that piece of grass. That is the Ever Ready factory in the background. I remember that dress. It was navy and white with Sooty and Sweep on it.” (looks red in the picture, but the image may have faded of course). Single Row was demolished in 1968. Library code: Hinkshay nostalgia 2025. Dawley nostalgia 2025.

This lost community was a place of living memories, and for Marie Wilks it was her childhood world.

The story of the three terraces - Single Row, Double Row, and New Row - has been told in a new book by Wellington's Heather Duckett called "Hinkshay Rows - A Shropshire Industrial Community." But what was it like to live at Single Row, with its tiny rooms, primitive outdoor toilet, and tin bath?

Basic living in the Hinkshay rows.
Basic living in the Hinkshay rows.

"I thought it was great. I didn't know any different," said Marie, who is now Marie Barber and lives near Wem.

"Thinking back, I think, oh my god, how did I live there? Yet we were happy."

The Wilks family bought 2 Single Row around 1959 when Marie was about 18 months old.

John Podmore - Marie's mum's brother - with his wife Stella, and their daughter Jayne, on a visit to Single Row, with Marie in the pale dress front right, around the mid-1960s.
John Podmore - Marie's mum's brother - with his wife Stella, and their daughter Jayne, on a visit to Single Row, with Marie in the pale dress front right, around the mid-1960s.

"It was really poor. Single Row was a single row of cottages, I would say about 12. I remember vividly that ours had a bright yellow door and a black window frame.

"When you came out of the front door, which was the only door, it was literally a road of compressed soil and when it rained was puddles and stones. It was awful.