Rosamund Street, 1963

A beautifully detailed Coronation Street jigsaw puzzle design from c. 1963. Ena Sharples and Martha Longhurst are standing on the corner of Bessie Street, observing Minnie Caldwell escorting a local moggy (possibly Bobby!) across the busy main road - with the aid of Albert Tatlock, lollipop man.

Florrie Lindley is also an onlooker. Gamma Garments, workplace of Mr Swindley, Miss Nugent and Doreen Lostock, ruled by the unseen but terrifying Mr Papagopolous, can be seen in the background. "VOTE FOR SWINDLEY!" proclaims a poster on the side of the building - recalling Mr Swindley's foray into local politics as the leader of the Property Owners And Small Traders Party. Beside Gamma is a tobacco kiosk, and beside that a laundrette. The bus, a No 63, is heading for Victoria Street, Coronation Street, Rosamund Street and the Town Centre.

Piecing It All Together...

One of a series of jigsaw puzzles from c. 1963 featuring characters from Coronation Street. Note the street featured on the box, which is actually Archie Street, Ordsall - the original template for the Coronation Street architecture. English folklore has been greatly enriched by the addition of television soap opera characters like fearsome old dragon Ena Sharples and the glamorous and fiery Elsie Tanner.

The Street began on 9/12/1960, the creation of one Tony Warren, and continues to entertain a mass audience to this day.

The characters featured in this jigsaw have long departed. Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) left in 1980, and moved to Lytham St Anne's; Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol) died in the snug of the Rovers Return in 1964; Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant) left to keep house for an old friend in 1976; Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) left in 1984 to live in Portugal with an old flame; and Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) died in a car crash in 1983.

Archie Street was demolished in 1971.