Chimps' tea party in Leigh Park church hall | Nostalgia

It included the fish and chip shop which Dennis says was run by the Whatley family while the off licence was a Smeed’s business. The parade of shops was opened in late 1952.

Across the road, Chalton Crescent was called Chalton on one street sign and Charlton at the other end of the road. The crescent was also susceptible to flooding from the Hermitage stream, recalls Dennis.

There was a vicarage attached to the Methodist church which has since been converted into two flats.

Alan Smith tells me that in the hall, and this would have been in the late 1950s or early 1960s, they had chimps’ tea parties! Remember the Brooke Bond Tea chimpanzees?

Admission to the tea party was one empty packet of Brooke Bond per person. He remembers queuing to get in clutching an empty tea packet before watching the chimps. Anyone else remember going?