Salisbury resident has lived on the same road for 92 years

Jean Chalcroft was born, raised and lived out her whole adult life on Belle Vue Road.

The only child moved a few doors down from her parent's home into a house with husband Tony 63 years ago and went on to have a son and daughter as well as six grandchildren (four boys and two girls).

The couple married in 1962 and thought about paying the £1k deposit to move to Butts Farm Estate, off Castle Road, but as time went on this became "more difficult" and they decided to stay put.

"We decided we would not move because we were looking after my mum and dad. We decided we might as well stay here and I'm glad we did," she said.

Jean Chalcroft. (Image: Spencer Mulholland)

Mrs Chalcroft explained how she used to know almost everyone on Belle Vue Road and had a directory in which she stored the contact details for people across the city.

Mrs Chalcroft, who attended High School for Girls, remembers dashing into the war shelter her father built in the family's dining room when the air raid sirens went off during the Second World War.

Her father John Quinton was called back from the war to take over his father's wheelwright business at 18-20 Pennyfarthing Street when he was just 17 years old.

However, the site was converted into council offices when Mr Quinton retired, aged 80, as there was no one else in the family willing to take over the business.

John Quinton working with Mr Bradley in 1961. (Image: Jean Chalcroft)

A keen dancer in her youth, Mrs Chalcroft recalled how she would spend her evenings at the Assembly Rooms.

"When I was 15, I went to a dance at Bemerton Hub and a fella threw a live match down on my dress and it caught fire. Who should be there but the chief of the fire brigade, Mr Ray," Mrs Chalcroft said.

Life in 1942 was "quite good" and Salisbury was a "lovely city then" but Mrs Chalcroft now feels as though the city has lost most of the shops that made it great, such as Style and Gerrish and Blooms.

She added: "It hasn't changed for the better at the moment. It's such a shame Salisbury used to be a lovely city for strangers but I think the cathedral draws people in now.

"I miss the little corner shops that we used to have round here, my nearest now is Tesco. When we get married in 1962 we still had the little shop on the corner. In the late 1970s it all changed when the little shops could not compete."