Memories enjoyed

He once said: “If she was woken up at three o’clock in the morning, she would have got up and gone down and let the person in and would have said ‘What can I get you?’, and when she let them out would have said ‘Thank you very much’.”

Mrs Cooper was known in the Norfolk Road area as “Mrs Never Shut”. If someone in the town ran out of an item on a Sunday afternoon, they would have known Cooper’s would be open for business.

My uncle also thought highly of Basil, and used to say he did the work of three men.

My uncle managed Caffyn’s butcher’s shop, which was next door to Cooper’s and is now part of the present Londis store, including the old Cooper’s premises.

There were many characters living in the Norfolk Road area at that time and my uncle was one of them.

H. G. Barnett

Fitzalan Road

Littlehampton