Childhood memories of Firkins revealed

When June Jones was just six-years-old, she and her friends would sit on a canal-side wall outside the Firkins factory in West Bromwich just to catch a sniff of the warm cakes.

It was her childhood memories of Firkins which led to June being a winner of one of the bakery's Celebration Cakes.

She received a cake along with three other winners - Susan Brayshaw from Rowley Regis, Doreen Clark who lives in Abbots Bromley, near Rugeley and Alice Price from Walsall.

The four ladies received their prize after Firkins announced it was celebrating its 140th birthday by launching a competition.

They were picked from dozens of entries from Express & Star readers.

June, 68, said: "As a girl I went to Black Lake school and the Firkins factory was right by it. Instead of going home from school, my friends and I would go along the canal and sit on the factory wall — just to smell the cakes.

"When I was older we moved to Winkle Street on Carter's Green and our house backed on to the very first Firkins shop in the area."

June said she would get some money for cakes by taking bottles of Tizer back to the local shop.

"In those days you would get six pence for returning the bottles and my friend and I would get a doughnut and a Beano comic with the money," said June, of Cherry Lane, Wednesbury.

Susan Brayshaw was only 15 when she got a job working at her local shop in Hamstead, near West Bromwich. "The staff became my second family — Betty, Margaret, Kathy, Nora and Nonnee," said Susan, who lives on Counterfield Drive, Rowley Regis.

"After passing my exams a job came up at the branch and I wanted it.

"Much to my parent's horror my grandad helped me to get a job there; they had wanted me to get a job in an office."

Susan says that owner Martyn Cavill would visit all the Firkins shops to make sure everything was alright. "His brother-in-law was Bobby Hope, who played for West Bromwich Albion and when they got to the FA Cup final I wanted to go," says Susan, 58. "However, I couldn't get the time off but Mr Martyn promised that if they won he would get me tickets for one of the European matches."

Susan says she remembers decorating the shop in blue and white for that special day in 1968. "We all wore Albion rosettes and while I was getting some cakes out of the window I heard on the radio that Jeff Astle had scored," she says.

"Well, my arms went up with joy and the cakes were nearly thrown across the shop.

"Mr Martyn was true to his word and got me tickets for an Albion versus Dumfermline match."

For Doreen Clark, 90, of High Street, Abbots Bromley, the pork pies were one of her favourites. She said:"They used to have these little pork pies and whenever I went in the lady behind the counter would say 'don't tell anyone but I'll give you one of the pies because you come in every week'."

Doreen, who used to work at West Bromwich Springs, added: "I once said to the owner, Harold Cavill, 'what is the magic in your pies' and he said it was the jelly — but he added that he would never divulge the secret because it came from his grandmother Mary."

Alice Price started going to Firkins when she worked as a traffic warden with West Midlands Police.

"As long as I was in Walsall I would go in and order my cooked meats and cakes and then my husband would go and collect it, as we weren't supposed to be shopping when we were working," said Doreen, 83, who lives in Burrowes Street, Walsall.

"I told the manageress that I did a lot of catering for the Birchills Liberal Club and would they like to take over the orders — she said they would be delighted.

"From then on they did weddings and parties and I dealt with them for 29 years, and their cakes were wonderful."