Nostalgia: ‘I love to show the kids where granny grew up’

Moira Thomas, 69, was just a baby when her family stayed in the area, but despite her young age she still has vivid memories of her childhood there.

“I stayed there till I was three and a bit, and even though I was so young the memories are really vivid, even now,” she says.

“It was an old two-up building and we stayed in the back in a box room, which overlooked the back of the building.

“We had a big fireplace and my mother was always catching me standing staring up at it.

“It’s strange the things that come back – I still have vivid memories of the house when my dad returned from the war, and even today it makes me cry.

“When we moved away it was into the new pre- fabricated houses on the west of town. It was very different of course, particularly the amount of space we had, but I think I missed the Old Town.”

Her memories may not have faded over the years, but Moira is still drawn to return to where she grew up, showing her own grandchildren the places she played as a child.

“I’ve gone back to the place where we lived quite a few times, although of course it’s all changed now, none of the shops are the same. We were near Joe’s Fish Shop, and that’s gone.

“But it’s good to take them back there and show then where granny grew up, and they’re always asking about the house and what we did.

“They are some of my happiest memories.”