I doubt anyone today can tell me the story of Teddy, “our most devoted dog, age 13 years, died February 3rd 1943”.
The stone inscription lies in the alley, behind Beech Road, and while plenty of people know of its existence I can not think they can tell me who put it there, or where Teddy’s owners lived.
I suspect it will be one of the three properties which backed on to the alley and faced out on to Beech Road.
Today, these are the San Juan Tapas Bar at number 56, Sherlock Holmes at 54 and the empty Parlour at number 52.
In 1939 Mr. and Mrs. Aldney dispensed beer and cheer from their offy on the corner, while next door the Rowley’s ran their family butcher’s business, leaving Miss Susan Scott who at 47 received disabled benefit.
Given that Miss Scott was living alone, and the inscription refers to “our” I guess it is likely to have been either of the other two.
Of course, that said, there are other candidates from any of the other residents who lived close by, but with the passage of 81 years we are not going to know.
In that simpler time, burying your dog in the alley might not have seemed so strange, but I suspect for all the right reasons it is not something you could do today.
And that is it ….. nothing more profound or revealing than a stone inscription placed behind a row of shops and dedicated to a dead dog.
Location; Beech Road
Picture; inscription to Teddy, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
I suspect it will be one of the three properties which backed on to the alley and faced out on to Beech Road.
Today, these are the San Juan Tapas Bar at number 56, Sherlock Holmes at 54 and the empty Parlour at number 52.
In 1939 Mr. and Mrs. Aldney dispensed beer and cheer from their offy on the corner, while next door the Rowley’s ran their family butcher’s business, leaving Miss Susan Scott who at 47 received disabled benefit.
Of course, that said, there are other candidates from any of the other residents who lived close by, but with the passage of 81 years we are not going to know.
In that simpler time, burying your dog in the alley might not have seemed so strange, but I suspect for all the right reasons it is not something you could do today.
And that is it ….. nothing more profound or revealing than a stone inscription placed behind a row of shops and dedicated to a dead dog.
Location; Beech Road
Picture; inscription to Teddy, 2020, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
Thanks for this post Andrew, I must admit I have lived in the area for most of my life but never new of this "gravestones" existence before. I felt compelled to visit it whilst out today and I was not "Teddy's" only visitor. I had a brief chat with one of the local home owners was out, possibly moving his bins, and he knew what I was searching for straight away! I had not been the first! I must say he was very friendly though.
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