THIS picture in a recent edition of Looking Back stirred memories for reader Frank Gwilt.

It shows Folds Road back in 1964 when things looked rather different than they do today.

As Frank explains: “One of the shops belonged to my grandad and grandma.”

His grandfather was called Tom Peake and he ran a cobblers’ shop repairing clogs, boots and shoes.

Clogs were still a popular form of footwear in the 1960s and were particularly popular with mill workers as they were hardwearing for use on the mill floors.

Parents were also fond of clogs for their children for the same reason — they were almost impossible to wear out.

“Unfortunately Tom had a club foot and spent his days going down to the cellar where his workshop was and then back up to the shop to serve his customers.

“My younger brother and I visited every Saturday afternoon while our mother and father went to Burnden Park to watch the football,” explains Frank.

Frank’s mother is now 94-years-old he says and lived in the premises until 1945 when she got married.

She can still recall a few shops that were around the shoe repair shop including Chadwick’s pawn shop, a Co-op, Daisy’s hardware shop, a tripe shop, Webster’s greengrocer’s and “a little further up the road towards Bolton was another cobblers shop where the owner always had a monkey on the counter, much to his customers amusement,” says Frank.