Woolies !

A Memory of Dewsbury.

I found this site through a link on another, which had pictures of old buses - http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/?cat=51
I commented there on some of the Yorkshire Woollen District Transport fleet, which my dad used to drive.
I was born in Dewsbury, Staincliffe to be exact, in 1957 and then lived in Princess Road, Chickenley for a while, in a house that used to be next to the cricket field, but isn't any more as they've built on the field since. I went to school there, before moving to Bradford due to change in my Dad's job on the buses. He started to work out of Bradford, where the YWD stored a bus or two to serve the Sheffield route.
My family came back to Dewsbury Moor in 1973. I started my first job at Woolworths (in the picture on Northgate) and remember that one of my first jobs of the day was to light the gas lights in the shop - yes, in 1974! It was the 'Three Day Week' and good old Woolies stayed open, with or without electricity, as we could put the gas lights on and the tills in the shop worked by winding a handle in the side! The girls were not allowed into the stock room, where I worked, when the power was off though. If they needed anything for the shop floor, I had to go get it, and they got told off by their supervisor for not stocking the shelves properly when they were supposed to.
We had a rickety lift that had a side entrance in the little side street round the back, where the deliveries came in. One of the more worrying things I had to do was open the fire escapes on a morning - which took me up to the roof - yes, if there was a fire in the warehouse the escape was up to the top, over the top of the flat roof and into a door of the next-door shop that also came out on the roof area. A bit frightening at times, as it was a long drop at the edges - if you were daft enough to go near.
Oh boy, wouldn't be allowed these days with health and safety etc. The top floor of the warehouse, only a single room at the very front, was the access point, and this was the home of the lightest goods the place sold - light bulbs and 'ladies' products, better known as 'manhole covers' to the amusement of many young warehouse lads ;-)
Ah, memories of pick 'n mix, when the boxes being delivered got split open and delivery drivers would have pockets bulging. We dare not touch a single one - 'Miss Hinton' was the warehouse supervisor and we would be in for a very hard time !
The cellar used to get flooded when the river burst its banks, despite having a pump down there to take the water up to street level. It couldn't cope, so once the level went back down the lads would have to spend days down there - cleaning all those nice bits of glass that they used on the counters, as that's all they could really keep down there that would not get ruined by water damage.
Amazing what went off behind the scenes.
I left Woolies after a year and went to Hillards in Heckmondwike, but I was back in Dewsbury later - as a night club DJ in Caesers Tavern - but that's another story...