WHAT an excellent artists’ impression of the soon to be refurbished Globe Pub printed in the Advertiser recently.

You mention well-known landlord Dickie Davies in residence. He and his wife Liz ran the Globe for five years (1964-1969). The very popular Mr & Mrs Lionel Goodfellow then took up the reins, very successfully, having had to witness their well-renowned Tonys’ Cafe being demolished under the town centre redevelopment programme.

This old coaching inn has many ancient memories for me inside and outside! Inside is obvious whilst outside conjures up Cummins’ Fruit and Veg stall in the High Street every Saturday which as a young teenager I used to work on in the early ‘60s.

At the end of Saturday trading my good friend Andrew Barry Chant and I used to be responsible for ensuring that the wheeled stalls were always put away in the coachhorse stables that used to be situated behind Globe Galleries.

The starting point was from the centre of the High Street and we would swing the wooden stalls around and align them with the Globe alleyway and with the generous camber that the road provided we would “aim” the three stalls, one at a time, at the “just wide enough” alley.

Then one of us would pull and guide the stall whilst the other would provide an almighty shove and, making sure it was clear of vehicles and the general public, we would be on our way across the road. Once we were on the move there was no stopping!

Our shouts of “out the way!” and “look out!” were rife.

The old cobbled alley ensured a rickety, bone-shaking passage to the stables and the twinkling coloured lights that spilled out from the shop windows all around, especially in winter, made me feel as though we were characters stepping out of a Dickensian novel. Two urchins, each with fifteen bob in our pockets for the days’ work!

Happy days!

A visit to the alley today will show a small window protruding and looking out from the pub. Unfortunately, on occasion, a stall roof would collide with this small oriel window, and after being assailed by our speeding free wheeling stalls, which had no brakes of course, this poor tiny window began to suffer badly from our weekly attention.

We always thought, as we vacated the area very swiftly with the aid of pedal power, that it added a uniquely quaint, characterful feel to one of the oldest buildings in the High Street!

And so it does today!! It looks perfect!

John “Artful Dodger” Porter, Millway Road, Andover.