Snuffy Rowleys

[ASTONITE]

Do any of you old Astonians remember Ernie Rowleys newsagents on Lichfield Road? They sold absolutely everything from back-ache pills to pot menders. In the late forties, early fifties, I used to fetch my dads woodbines and his Sporting Buff from there, he was called snuffy because he sold a wide range of snuffs, he also sold all kinds of pipe tobacco, includind twist which he cut from the roll with a small guillotine, I remember the smell mostly, and how small the shop was, as both he and his wife were both on the rotund side.