CHILDREN who went shopping at Woolworths in the 1950s and 1960s were fascinated by the sloping wooden floor.
If you entered the store at the Queen Street entrance you walked uphill before leaving via the Eldon Street entrance.
Valerie Bott, of Darton, who worked there for over 30 years remembers the floor. “The nearby Burlington Arcade is on a slope and so was the floor at Woolworths,” she said.
Valerie started work there in 1953 when none of the items on sale cost more than £10. Stocktaking was always done after Christmas and had to be completed by December 31. “We had Christmas Day and Boxing Day off so we had only five days to get everything done and that meant working late at night.”
To keep workers going, two members of staff carried a large bin down to the fish and chip shop in the Gas Nook and it was filled with around 50 portions of fish and chips.
John Puddephat, of Silkstone, said in the mid 1930s the store was managed by former Barnsley footballer, Edward ‘Tubby’ Ashton.
He recalled the night when it was partially destroyed by fire, probably in 1933.
As you entered the store from the Eldon Street entrance there was a trap door in the floor and workers were told never to leave it open. One day someone forgot and the manager fell down the steps into the cellar. He wasn't injured but the air turned blue.
Ninety-two year old Lucy Hanwell (nee Holding) of Grimethorpe worked at Woolworths from 1938 to 1941 when prices were six old pennies or less. She wore the burgundy coloured shop uniform and worked on nearly all the counters. The staff were discouraged from speaking to each other, unless they were talking about work.
There was a great deal of interest in Woolworths and the nearby Three Cranes Hotel after they were featured in our Then and Now column.
The Three Cranes was the place to be in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Resident band leaders were Tony Evans, who went on to be a big band name at the Hammersmith Palais and in Leicester Square, and Geoff Haigh.
Mr J Schofield, of Dodworth, started work at the hotel after leaving school and later became head chef.
“We had some very good dinner dances, Rotary dinners, Robbie Burns nights etc and some distinguished guests, cricketers Johnny Wardle and Sir Len Hutton and Lord Robens. then chairman of the National Coal Board.
