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For most people in Worksop the choices that lay before them leaving school were limited.
Leslie Jarvis has written a very poignant poem on starting to work at the pit in 1930….
A bottle of water,
A tin full of snap.
Ragged old trousers
And a broken-peaked cap.
Eyes all aching
For the want of sleep.
Ready to work in coalpit deep.
Why all this action
At crack of dawn?
Standing on the pit bank,
A figure forlorn.
I should be at school
Sat at a desk,
Round about nine.
Not waiting, all sleepy,
To go down the mine.
Reproduced with kind permission of the family.
Peter left school in 1943 and went to work at Baddily’s Farm, which was where the Larwood estate is now. His job included ploughing with horses, milking, and general farm work. He later became a tractor and lorry driver, taking sugar beet to the Kelham factory. Some men, like Peter, were needed to work at RAF Scofton. The planes were Vampires and Meteors and Peter’s job was to maintain and fuel the meteors.
Women mostly worked at the big factories on the north side of the town, and the friendships and romances from there have lasted many years. Pauline’s parents met at the Glassworks on Sandy Lane. Her dad worked there for forty-four years as a sorter and her mum worked in the canteen. Pauline herself worked at Steel and Garland and her husband at Bairnswear.
Like many others June was at Batchelors and has very happy memories of the annual trip to Blackpool. They chartered a train and enjoyed a free lunch and tea at the Winter Gardens.
Sylvia moved to Carr Fasteners after struggling with the adding up at the Beehive Stores, Herbert Smith’s Drapers on Victoria Square, fondly remembered by many for its overhead cash carrier.
Carr Fasteners had opened a new section called “The Barriers” and Sylvia recounts:
“We were an unruly gang, I can remember us belting out 'Diana'”
(Paul Anker’s song ‘Diana’ was a big hit in 1957).
Ben tells of working on the maintenance team at Victoria Hospital:
“Part of my job was to work on the ducting beneath the hospital - in places you had to crawl or crouch down. There was a basement storeroom with the names of the hospital benefactors on - names like Bannister and Bartrop that many will remember from being on the wards named after them, also Joseph Garside, a benefactor of the church too.”
Lynn recounts the drama of the fire in the old Maltings building that stood where Aldi is now:
“It was derelict but the ground floor was being used for small businesses. We went to help my “Uncle Alan” get his flammable photographic equipment out of his shop in front on Gateford Road. The heat from the fire made the glass in his back windows too hot to touch. I remember seeing two men who had a car respraying business running out through the archway to the Maltings, straining under the weight of the enormous oxyacetylene tanks on their backs. It was like a scene from a movie.”
Worksop has many sons and daughters who have done well in the world of work. Our area has its share of stories of those who have been successful – rising to management positions in local firms like Genefax or Wilco, or founding new ventures like John’s son who now runs the international Go-Kart circuit. The famous golfer Lee Westwood was at Sir Edmund Hillary Primary School and Valley Comprehensive School.
More memories have been shared and recorded as our Tuesdays @ 10@ Coffee morning continues to meet.
Many visitors have told us of their parents and grandparents’ occupations – a lot worked at Shireoaks Colliery, and we had a fascinating morning when Phil Whitehead shared the history of the colliery. Some of his old work mates joined us and we learnt a lot about the challenges and the camaraderie of work underground.
George recounted how many years ago four businessmen were having a drink on Canal Road, and one suggested they should start a new business. They each laid down half a crown (twelve and a halfpence in today’s money) and with that they opened a small shop on Watson Road selling food and clothes at reasonable prices. It grew and grew, and they ended up with a large premises, offices, and a shop front on the corner of Eastgate!
“I worked as a delivery driver for the Co-op. Later I became stock stroller for the Electrical Department on Eastgate. When that closed, I worked at the Watson Road branch as Porter and Caretaker. When that closed, I worked as a milkman.”
Like many others George had to adjust to the many changes in the retail trade, ending up finally working for Wilkos.
Peter’s Dad worked first for the Co-op shoe repairers, then for the fishmongers which he described as the “posh one” that delivered fish and game to Welbeck and the other ducal estates. Like many others National Service gave him the opportunity to learn a trade and he trained as an electrician which led him on to work as a railway signaller at Shireoaks and a fitter at Manton Pit.
Cynthia knows that her family, the Beswicks lived at 20 Gladstone Street.
They had two shops: 132A Eastgate and 26 Gateford Road. The Beswick brothers ran these two cobbler’s shops.
The Sherwood Confectioners Van being driven by one of the Beswick boys around 1918 – there were 7 boys and 5 girls in the family.
The canal has been a key feature in the development of Worksop, and it was interesting to hear from Andrew that his late wife’s grandfather had been a boatman on the Chesterfield Canal. His boat was named “Ida,” after Ida Sullivan, his daughter.
It was not uncommon for children to be off school to help with the family business or with seasonal work in the fields. Sometimes, as in Betty’s case it was her mother’s poor health that meant she had to stay at home on Mondays to help with the weekly wash. School Bobbies understood such circumstances.
office.worksopstjohn@gmail.com
St John’s Church,
Overend Road,
Worksop,
Nottinghamshire,
S80 1QG