please empty your brain below
I'm surprised that the church close to the corner shop has not been renamed St Margaret the Immaculate.

popartist | 02.10.21 - 8:04 a.m. | #

I thought that the pair of road signs on the left of the image in the third photo showing the church were appropriate.

Still Anon | 02.10.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #

Definitely changed Britain for the worse, but I'd still rather have her in charge than the current incompetent thieves.

D9000 | 02.10.21 - 8:46 a.m. | #

I’m intrigued by the ‘unplumbed bath across the yard’.

RogerB | 02.10.21 - 8:49 a.m. | #

Such an interesting post - thankyou! I read in a book in the "Counterblast" series that the Roberts' shop was perched precariously on the edge of a genteel part of tow, but overlooked a more lowly neighbourhood over the road. From the living accommodation, could be viewed a neat cross-section of the town, who was up, who was down; who would an would not be able to buy groceries "on account". That lowly neighbourhood now seems to have been bull-dozed.

cau1khead | 02.10.21 - 9:06 a.m. | #

Alfred Roberts could have afforded modern plumbing for the family home - he owned two grocery shops - but he preferred to live frugally. The family bath was an iron tub, in the same room across the yard as the outside toilet. (It is not too long ago that most people would have bathed in a tin bathtub by the fire, or in public baths. And an outside toilet or a chamber pot.)

Andrew | 02.10.21 - 9:13 a.m. | #

I'm amazed someone with her background became a Tory and not an Labour MP!

Cornish Cockney | 02.10.21 - 9:42 a.m. | #

Great post - I had forgotten her bus quote!

Kevin | 02.10.21 - 9:56 a.m. | #

Andrew, I have been bathed in the tin bath (in front of the fire) and when I left home used the public baths not a million miles from DG towers. BUT, an unplumbed iron tub in the outside loo??
(Cardboard box in t'middle of t'road anyone?)

RogerB | 02.10.21 - 9:57 a.m. | #

Tramp the dirt down.

Frank F | 02.10.21 - 10:29 a.m. | #

Thanks for going so I won't have to!

Alan | 02.10.21 - 11:59 a.m. | #

Quite a coincidence that Margaret Thatcher's father shares the same name as Coronation Street's most famous grocer!

Richard | 02.10.21 - 1:14 p.m. | #

Mao Zedong's father was a landlord so Ms Roberts' origin was not as much a surprise as some might suggest.

Also, even "bad" people is history. At least Grantham is not Braunau am Inn.

Patrickov | 02.10.21 - 1:21 p.m. | #

Looking at the property on Google Street view, it's not exactly small. Two shops wide on North Parade, possible even longer down Broad Street. Three stories high on the main property. I assume the end building on Broad St with the chimney may have been the wash house(or whatever) which contained the Copper for doing the washing in or heating the bath water and may well have been where the tin bath was used.

If all the building was Alfred Roberts', I would hardly call the living conditions cramped, despite what Margaret Thatcher may have said. Indeed, it would have been luxury for many people living at that time.

dg writes: The therapy centre's address is 2-6 North Parade. The Roberts just lived at number 2. Your assumptions have led to an entirely false conclusion.

rogmi | 02.10.21 - 1:31 p.m. | #

Really interesting post. Never been to Grantham, it's not the sort of place you tend to go out of your way to visit, but must make the effort to do so.

A humble upbringing doesn't automatically make you a socialist, similarly a comfortable upbringing doesn't necessarily make you a Tory.

Mikey C | 02.10.21 - 1:58 p.m. | #

Interesting nostalgic post today.

In a previous incarnation the therapy centre was a restaurant called the Premier. The entrance sported a replica No.10 Downing Street door!

Incidentally my two daughters followed Maggie's education trail, attending both Huntingtower and KGGS. They both turned out alright too.

We moved away from Grantham in 1998, although still visit occasionally. Sadly the town seems to be in decline these days. Most of the industry has disappeared - BMARC and the former Reads can factory are long since demolished and replaced by housing. A poor selection of shops and the almost non existent street market paint a really sorry picture compared to the vibrant town I once knew.

Bob S | 02.10.21 - 2:29 p.m. | #

Worse.

Colin | Homepage | 03.10.21 - 2:39 p.m. | #











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