Sheffield Saturday jobs: A right of passage, or just a means to an end?

My friend Robert Wellington told me a joke at the weekend, as he regularly does. It went: Who remembers their first job? Mine was at a calendar factory – I got sacked because I took a day off.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Gave me a laugh, but also cast me back to memories of my first job.

For me, like many, my first job was that of a paperboy.

Being a paper boy or girl seemed to me a right of passage or at least a way to earn your own money.

Green 'Un newsboys and girls ready for the new season in August 1975. Are you pictured?Green 'Un newsboys and girls ready for the new season in August 1975. Are you pictured?
Green 'Un newsboys and girls ready for the new season in August 1975. Are you pictured?
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I remember it well, a paper shop on Longley Avenue West in the late 70s.

Getting my 30 or so papers, and setting off down the road, with my last paper the furthest away from the shop, which was irritating as I had to walk all the way back up the hill to the shop to drop the bag off.

The paper I delivered, was obviously The Star which then was a broadsheet paper and evening edition. How things have changed.

Many kids my age aspired to getting a Saturday job so many had them – if they were lucky.

Gallery looking down on Castle MarketGallery looking down on Castle Market
Gallery looking down on Castle Market
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Anything from working in a shoe shop or many of the market stalls in one of three markets, as well as Dixon Lane.

Banners in Attercliffe was also a popular choice for many.

My brother-in-law Terry, worked for a milkman in Heeley called Tommy Newcombe, helping with early morning deliveries.

A friend of mine must have been the luckiest girl in Sheffield, she worked for Harringtons, a very popular clothes shop in Castle Market.

Traders on Dixon Lane, Sheffield, in 1967Traders on Dixon Lane, Sheffield, in 1967
Traders on Dixon Lane, Sheffield, in 1967

When we were paid we thought we were millionaires.

But we were possibly a cheap source of labour, or were we gaining great work experience?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When we were paid, some would rush down to Harringtons in Castle Market, for the latest fashion bargains, or Woolworths on the Haymarket to buy some of the top 40 chart records of the day.

When I left school in 1981 the UK was going into a deep recession.

Dixon Lane, Sheffield in 1950
Caption reads "There's something lively and "matey" about a shopping crowd.  Let's keep the town alive a little later, on Saturday's at any rate".Dixon Lane, Sheffield in 1950
Caption reads "There's something lively and "matey" about a shopping crowd.  Let's keep the town alive a little later, on Saturday's at any rate".
Dixon Lane, Sheffield in 1950 Caption reads "There's something lively and "matey" about a shopping crowd. Let's keep the town alive a little later, on Saturday's at any rate".

Sheffield was hit particularly hard, our steel industry the most.

With redundancies being announced weekly, my first job seemed a long way off. They were depressing times, most pupils wanted to leave school and start to earn but jobs were getting scarcer and scarcer every week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Young inexperienced 16-year-olds didn’t really stand much of a chance.

College was the only option for most, taking a course you didn’t really want to take because you wanted to work, not stay in education as you’d been learning for the past 11 years.

Looking back this was a great opportunity rather than a depressing state of affairs, at 16 we didn’t see it like that.

I remember listening to people only a few years older than myself saying they’d left school on the Friday and started work on the Monday, this made things even more depressing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Listening to even older generations talking about getting jobs for life and never looking back. That was never going to happen for us now, jobs for life are few and far between.

My first job seemed a long way away but eventually I did land a position, but not a job. This was a YOPS (Youth Opportunity Programme Scheme) at Daniel Doncaster’s on Penistone Road. Work experience, good or bad, was the only benefit.