Pocket money toys

In the 50s I would run errands for my gran and she would always give me 3d to spend on myself. I often went to the paper shop opposite the Radford club on Radford Rd. for a quarter ounce of SP no.1 snuff wrapped in a triangular twist of paper. There was a fabulous toy shop very nearby where I bought toy soldiers. Lead soldiers were 3d each and the new plastic ones were 9d. 50 odd years later I have been buying metal collectable soldiers for my nephew, £6.50 each! There was a delicatessen on the Radford Rd. I must admit we didn't really know in those days what the word actually meant but we bought ham and cheese etc. They also sold those absolutely delicious Kunzle cakes which I believe are still produced but are difficult to find.

Ha! Sorry folks, the snuff was for my gran!

I did wonder, walrus.

Walrus, the newsagents was Charlie Ward's, and the toy shop was on the corner of Dugdale Rd and Radford Rd next door to a cafe whose name escapes me.

Thanks for that Artful, I knew the area so well as a kid but the memory is now unreliable. I know now that many of the streets were named after George Eliot characters but didn't actually know that back then. I like your screen name, I was on a submarine in the navy called H.M.S. Artful.

Hi Walrus, I lived in (Silas) Marner Crescent until I married. The Artful comes from a nickname I was given when I was about 10 years old - never dreamt a sub had been named after me lol.

Here's a range of toy cars I don't remember, it's a Coventry-built Jaguar as well! Advert is from August 1965...

Toy shop was The Savoy Library

Does anyone remember Britains Swoppets aka: "Herald Miniatures"? Many of the parts were detachable and could be swapped with other figures, hence the name. I only ever bought a few of these as they were three-times the price of their nearest rival so to buy enough to have fought a realistic battle would have been prohibitively expensive.

Hi Dutchman, I remember them well used to buy them regularly from a stall in Coventry Market on a Saturday when buying or swapping American comics at one stall and cut-price sweets at another! If my memory serves me correct, the comic / toy stalls were located near each other by doors close to QV Road with the sweet stall just outside but not part of the main circular building.

Hi, a new lot of topics I haven't seen before, but the Wizard was my favourite comic, a guy could outrun a fox, always wore black, outran anyone on the track, can't remember his name. But by the time I was thirteen, started to buy the Flight magazine. Did paper and milk rounds for money, didn't need toys, dad made them all, table money box, metal money box, guys head like off the jam, put penny on the guy's hand, lifted up and into mouth. Made draught board with cupboard to keep draughts in. Brother did Sat morning greengrocer cart, bought car magazine and Sunpat raisins, sixpence a packet with money. Sometimes bought bubble gum.

Hi Dutchman. My mate and I collected Swoppets, especially the knights in armour ones. We would stage mediaeval battles. I remember the various bits being interchangeable. For years after I grew out of them they were situated on the pelmet above my bedroom window, gathering dust. No idea what happened to them in the end. Wearethemods: You are absolutely correct. We bought all of ours from the toy stall in the market situated around the corner from the ramp to the fish market. As you say, close to all the sweets stalls near the Queen Victoria Road entrance. I think they were a bit cheaper than Barnby's. They also stocked all those jokes and tricks, itching powder, sneezing powder, stink bombs etc.

I had to save my sixpences to buy native dolls, later at 10 yrs I had to earn 50p, a 10 bob note, by washing up during the week, peeling potatoes then weekends vacuuming and cleaning either living room or making beds and cleaning the bedrooms. I bought gonks and the little brushes to style their fur. Later my 10 bob note bought me single records from Woolworth. I recall the lads I played with saved theirs for catapults or caps for their guns, later in their teens they bought records. Not sure if a lad I knew Ted Duggan bought his own drum kit.

They also stocked all those jokes and tricks, itching powder, sneezing powder, stink bombs etc. Hi Mr D-Di, you've just reminded me as well about the 'jokes'. Speaking of which there used to be a small shop half way up Broomfield Road in Earlsdon on the left hand side if coming up from Albany Road next door to, or nearby, the best fish & chip shop in the area (Whitmore's rings a bell) which sold all the above amongst other things such as fake dog muck etc. No idea what the shop name was.

I have a distant recollection of the shop in Broomfield Road. I had an aunt who lived in Melbourne Road and would sometimes spend the day there when my mother worked at Renold Chain. The aunt did her shopping locally and I'm sure I remember her buying me Matchbox cars from that shop. The other place I would often get them from was Devlins in Broadgate where they had a big display of all the models. Strange - never given that place a thought for decades. The fish & chip shop I remember in Broomfield Road was opposite the Albany pub. I used it regularly in the late 60s at lunchtimes when I was at KHVIII. It was known as 'Stan's Plaice'.