LAST week's piece on Doris Welton, the first platform announcer at the old Sheffield Victoria railway station in the last war, drew a lot of interest.

Not least from her old pal May Gay.

Now 89, with a diction as clear as ever, she lives in Killamarsh.

May, who later married and became Agnes May Westmoreland, was on the alternate shift to Doris, who got all the publicity because hers started first.

"When I got called up at 21 I should have gone in the forces but the army already had three of my five brothers and I didn't think it fair on my parents," she says.

She ended up on the railway and after a brief spell as a ticket collector was volunteered for the announcing job.

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"Eight girls were picked and Doris and I had to go to London to have our voices tested. It was a big adventure during the war."

She did it for six years until she married and lost touch with Doris, who died a few weeks ago.

May remembers the royal train coming through at least four times. And what she said. Nothing.

"The station was closed when that happened," she recalls.

Turnstile rush for house on market
HERE'S another estate agent telling us it's not all doom and gloom.

After Nick Riddle of ELR showed how Prince Naseem's £4 million mansion was cheaper per foot than a Ecclesall semi, a call from Martin Fox of Bairstow Eves of Banner Cross.

Not half a mile from Naz's place, at Bents Green, he put a semi on the market and showed 60 people around the house one Saturday and got 20 offers

"I needed a turnstile, not a front door," he gasps. "We're not jumping off the cliff yet."


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