Sunbeck was the place to be

It's back to the 1950s this week with a look at a corner of Nelson that has gone forever. Here at the junction of Railway Street, Hibson Road and Hall Street we can see the mill town of yesteryear.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th May 2016, 08:00 BST

From left to right we see the town’s legendary “Sunbeck” Milk Bar complete with advertising for Turf and Capstan cigarettes. Then it’s John Brunton’s fish, fruit and game stores, followed by H. and A. Pickard’s, gent’s outfitters, one of the nine tailor’s shops on Railway Street in the 1950s.

For teenagers of the day, the “Sunbeck” Milk Bar was the place to go with a superb jukebox and frothy coffees.

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As we sipped our drinks the sounds of the Fifties echoed from the jukebox for 6d (two and a half pence today) a play. These were days of great joy as we sat tapping our feet as Bill Haley and His Comets sang “Rock Around the Clock”, Buddy Holly and The Crickets with “That’ll Be The Day”, the Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love”, Paul Anker’s “Diana”, Bobby Darin’s “Dream Lover”, Neil Sedaka’s “Oh Carol”, Eddie Cochran with his “Summertime Blues”, Elvis Presley and “The Girl of My Best Friend”, Roy Orbison’s “Only The Lonely” and, my jukebox favourite of all time, Jimmy James with his sublime “Good Timing”.

It was truly a golden era to be young in an iconic time.

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