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Moyra Simmons, 2012
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ME, MY FAMILY AND HIGHAM CO-OP
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by Moyra Simmons
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I suppose my first recollection of Higham Co-op was as a small child, just at the end of WWII, when a passer-by would call up the entry between the 6 houses in Milton Street - Nos. 28 to 38, ours being No. 34 and on the entry - that there were bananas on sale at the Co-op. Along with my playmates I would be told to run quickly to keep a place in the queue until our Mums could get up there. Often they would be sold out, but if we were lucky there would be banana sandwiches for tea, a real treat, and one which I am still partial to even now.
To say that my family ate, slept and lived the Co-op would be no exaggeration, since my mother had worked in the Co-op office as a young girl but had had to leave when she married my father in 1937, simply because the Co-op didn't employ married women in those days.
The office adjoined the Grocery Department on the corner of Wharf Road and Westfields Terrace. A small Hardware shop and then the Co-op Bakery were in Westfields Terrace. Lancaster Street also had its own Grocery Department.
Our milk was delivered by the Co-op milkman. Our bread, freshly baked in the Co-op Bakehouse was sometimes delivered still warm; the Bakehouse was functional I think, until the big Co-op bakery came into being near to the Rubber factory in Wellingborough. To begin with this bread tasted as if it had been made in the Rubber factory, pure white, sliced and rubbery!! Our coal and coke was delivered by the two Coalmen - Reg Parker and Frank Hensman. Meat was bought from the Co-op Butchers down College Street which was run by Mr. Kirk and later on Mr. King-Underwood. And, right next door to the butchers, was the Co-op Drapery Department which was run by Evelyn Waller, later on she became Evelyn Williams, and that's where we got our clothes and drapery requirements from. Furniture and carpets were bought from Rushden Co-op. Later on, other departments were added like the Menswear Outfitters at the bottom of the High Street run by Freddie Bedells and his young assistant David Newall, and over the road another Grocery shop was opened to serve the people from The Hedges Council Estate and Wellingborough Road areas. And when you popped your clogs there was the Funeral services which was done by Wellingborough Co-op.
As I said, my mother Olive White as she was, worked in the Office and had done most of her early life. When she left Rushden Secondary School, at about the age of 14 I think, she first went into Walker and Gunn's shoe factory, and it was there that she met my father. A couple of years later she was none too happy when she was told by her father (Postman Raymond White) that he had found her a job in the Co-op Offices as a Clerk. I'm not sure what clout my grandfather had with the Co-op, I know he was a staunch Labour supporter and a firm believer in the Co-operative movement, and later on lived in one of their rented houses in Westfield Street along with his eldest daughter and her family. Mum's first boss was Mr. Randall, but after he retired Mr. Jacques became the Manager.
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Ladies at the Toc H Stall,
Annual Mayor's Fair on the Market Square, Higham Ferrers, c.1975.
Pictured: (centre) Olive Simmons, and (right) Mrs Smith.
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When I was about 9 years old Secretary Bob Knight and yet another new Manager Jack Rowlett, asked my mother if she could help them out as they were short-staffed and the Half Year Ending was approaching; my dad was often on short time in the shoe trade, so she and dad thought the money would come in handy. The rest, they say, is history because they never asked her to leave, well not for 20 odd years. Initially she worked from 9 to 11 and 2 to 4 and I can remember with the school being opposite, I used to go to the school railings at 'playtime' and we would wave to each other. At 4 o'clock I would go over the road and go upstairs to the Boardroom, because that was where she worked, and wait for her to finish. I know that amongst her jobs she looked after the Grocery Department books for the Manager Len Loasby. She also did Len Lawrence's books, he was the 'Mutuality Man', that took some understanding, but later on I realised it was a sort of scheme whereby you paid into it weekly and at the end of 20 weeks, vouchers were issued to you which you could spend in any of the departments. These days one would use a Catalogue, the only difference being that you paid upfront before you had the vouchers. After Len retired his round was taken over by Bernard Coker.
With my mum working in the office I had opened up my first Savings book, a 'Penny Bank Book', and when I left school my Mum arranged for me to have my own check number. I can still remember that number - 989, my mum thought it would be an easy number for me to remember, and she was right.
Over the years her hours were increased until she was more-or-less full time, and by then I too was working, but not at the Co-op. I went to work in the Sales Office of Wilkins and Denton at Totector House, in Carnegie Street, Rushden. During this period, the Manageress of the Drapery decided to hold twice yearly Fashion Shows; they sold lovely clothes and drew a clientele from all around. Evelyn Williams used to put on a good display, and tried to show something in all the sizes ranging from small to outsize. I was asked if I would help out because she didn't have an employee to model the particular size that I was, so I often finished up in clothes that were more suited to someone older. My cousin Noreen Turney who worked in the Drapery at Higham before she went to Rushden Co-op Drapery, modelled the smaller 5'2" range. Other staff I can remember who modelled were Beryl Pogson and Janet Whittington from the Drapery Department and Betty Titchmarsh from the Office, and also Edna Pack from the Grocery Department.
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Moyra Simmons in the mid 1950s modelling a deep peach outfit, with a black band
around the hat, for the Higham Ferrers Co-op.
Included in the audience front right are Mrs Norris and her daughter Elizabeth,
Betty and Norma Kirk.
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My mum was brilliant at maths and could go up and down sets of figures like clockwork. Her double foolscap ledgers were almost like abstract paintings as she was also a beautiful writer, and I do remember her using different coloured inks with old-fashioned dip-in-an-inkwell pens. She carried on working there right up until my father died in 1970, but by then Jack Rowlett had retired and Colin Rockingham who had been the Secretary after Bob Knight went on to pastures new in Kettering, was made Manager. Now Mum was working for her fourth manager, she was by now in her late 50's, and the new Manager understandably needed to modernise and realised that Mum wouldn't be able to change to new technology, so she was offered a job working down the Drapery Shop and a Comp. operator was brought in.
She only stayed at the Drapery for a short time; she just preferred working in an office. Evelyn Williams had also retired and the Drapery was then made into a sort of boutique to try and attract the younger element, but people were beginning to shop for their clothes in larger towns like Northampton and Leicester and the shop closed down.
At one point besides my mum working at the Co-op, my Uncle Hubert Wheatley worked in the Grocery Department, and as I've said my cousin Noreen was in the Drapery. Dad's cousin (Mr) Jean Martin was on the Milk Round, so we had quite a lot of family in a small organisation. One of the things I used to love was when it was the 'Divi Day'. The money would be paid out from the Adult School on the corner of the Backway (Westfields Terrace) and Nene Road and the staff had to be locked in during the lunch hour. This meant that they had to be fed, so what better than breaded plaice and chips provided by the Co-op Fish and Chip Shop in the High Street. This used to be Quincey's until Denis sold out to the Co-op, but he was kept on to run the business. This provision of the plaice and chips was also extended to myself and my Dad since Mum was one of the staff 'locked in', so I would have to go round to the back of the Fish Shop to collect our dinners as I don't think they normally opened at lunch times then. Another treat I experienced was to accompany my mother once on the annual Staff Outing in the early 50's. I remember that I had had to ask Miss Boys - Headmistress at Rushden North End School - for permission to have the day off. On that particular trip I remember they were going to a CWS Canning Factory in Reading in Berkshire, having lunch there and then heading off to London for a show at night, and the only way I got the day off was to write an article for Miss Boys about the Canning Factory. What a killjoy she could be!
Sadly of course times change and eventually many of the shops and facilities closed, and now I think, there is only the one Grocery/Off Licence shop left in the High Street.
It was only in later life that I found out just how much we, as a family, owed a debt of gratitude to Higham Co-op. The houses from Nos. 16 to 38 Milton Street had been owned by the Free Gardeners Association and were rented out. During the war they decided to sell them off to the tenants, in our case the tenant was my grandmother, and she had no money, and my father, well, he was away doing his bit in the War, so my mother was put in a situation where she could only turn to the one thing she knew and that was the Co-op. I'm not sure which manager was in charge then - Mr. Randall or Mr. Jacques - but whichever gentleman it was, he kindly agreed to let her have a small Mortgage so that she could buy the house. This was indeed a big concession since she wasn't working and there was no guarantee that my Dad would return from the war. A risk that wouldn't even be considered today!
You can see now why I say, we did eat, we did sleep, and we did live Higham Co-op - mainly because the roof over our heads was due to the kindness of a benevolent Manager of Higham Co-op. |
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