GIVE US A RING: 01226 327000

GIVE US A RING: 01226 327000

ELDON STREET – HERITAGE ACTION ZONE

We want your stories!

Whether you were a Teddy Boy in the 1950’s or an Emo in the 2000s, we want to hear about your stories of being a teenager in Barnsley over the last 70 years.

We will explore the influence that local youth culture has had on Eldon Street and the wider area and explore what it is like to be a teenager over different generations.

We will be asking for your images and stories each month, with different call-out themes including music, fashion, youth employment, education, cinema, theatre, pubs, and youth clubs.

We’ll share what we find in a new our digital archive and in pop-up exhibitions within the town centre. There will be multiple opportunities for the public to be involved, including sharing your story online or in person, or by being a project volunteer.

Teenage Wildlife is a community project designed and managed by The Civic Barnsley and is part of the Eldon Street Heritage Action Zone, a partnership between The Civic, Barnsley Council and Historic England.

If you have another teenage story, or a collection of photographs that you would like to share, please contact us by emailing [email protected]

For regular project updates and to see the stories that people are sharing, join us on our new social media channels by clicking below.

Whether you were a Teddy Boy in the 1950’s or an Emo in the 2000s, we want to hear about your stories of being a teenager in Barnsley over the last 70 years.

We will explore the influence that local youth culture has had on Eldon Street and the wider area and explore what it is like to be a teenager over different generations.

We will be asking for your images and stories each month, with different call-out themes including music, fashion, youth employment, education, cinema, theatre, pubs, and youth clubs.

We’ll share what we find in a new our digital archive and in pop-up exhibitions within the town centre. There will be multiple opportunities for the public to be involved, including sharing your story online or in person, or by being a project volunteer.

Teenage Wildlife is a community project designed and managed by The Civic Barnsley and is part of the Eldon Street Heritage Action Zone, a partnership between The Civic, Barnsley Council and Historic England.

If you have another teenage story, or a collection of photographs that you would like to share, please contact us by emailing [email protected]

For regular project updates and to see the stories that people are sharing, join us on our new social media channels by clicking below.

SUMMER CALL OUT

WE NEED YOUR STORIES & PHOTOS!

We remember our teenage summers as some of the best times of our lives, and we’d like to capture some of those memories in our project.

Over the summer, we’d like to hear your stories and see your photographs covering topics such as festivals, live music, sports teams, your first visits to the pub, eating out, holidays with parents and holidays with friends, political marches, Pride and simply hanging out town with your friends.

We’re covering the years 1950s – present, so this call-out is open to everyone.

Share your memories and photographs by clicking the button below.

If you are interested in being interviewed, please get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Maureen buys her first scooter and poses outside her home in Hoyland. She saved up her earnings from her job at Leslie Frances. 1966”

WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR 

In November, we started to collect stories from former teenage employees of Leslie Frances Hair Salon and Beachill’s Hairdresser. Both companies have been very significant to the Eldon Street area for many decades. Leslie Frances since the 1950s and Beachill’s at 44 Eldon Street between 1937-2003, part of The Civic building, before moving to premises on Pitt Street.

One of the first people to be interviewed for the project was Maureen Geraghty, who was born in Hoyland in 1945. She spoke about her time at Kirk Balk school and her first employment at Leslie Frances at the age of 15; a salon at which her mother was a frequent customer. Later becoming an apprentice, while also cutting hair in her own time, she saved up her wages to buy a prized Lambretta scooter and became a member of a local scooter club, often taking day trips to Scarborough. In 1967, she moved to Scarborough, before emigrating to Canada and South Africa.

We have also been collecting stories from former dance and theatre school students. Mavis Burrow’s School of Dance and Rosalyn Wicks Dance School were two of the most prominent in the area, with lessons and performances taking place at The Civic over many decades.

Louise Devenney (née Tomes) kindly donated her teen scrapbooks to the project. Now living in the US, Louise’s scrapbooks capture a moment in time for a dance and theatre obsessed teenager. Each of her four scrapbooks contain personal photographs, theatre programmes, autographs, letters and newspaper cuttings of anything theatre related, both local and national.

In February we collected Valentine stories, and Barugh Green resident David Mallard kindly shared his story. Born 1943, he spoke about growing up with a father who suffered from shellshock after fighting in France in the First World War – later dying from untreated Septicaemia. David suffered at school from bullying and shyness. Knowing this was a result from the gap left by his dad, he found solace in sports, cycling and the fun fairs at Feast Week. He started working as a trainee caretaker at Woolley Hall, then later working at a grocery store in Darton. In 1960 he started working in coal mines – Hague, Woolley, Rockingham. At 17, he met his wife-to-be Maureen. They spent many weekend watching films at the Odeon and listening to skiffle and rock n roll.

In March, theatre performer Mark Tilotson told us about moving to Barnsley after studying at Bretton Hall in the 1980s. He got an office in The Civic with his then new company Mark Mark Productions, and is still there today.

In April, Tony Wright told us about his love of The Jam and Paul Weller and his time at White Cross school. In May, Stuart Clemit told us about his time in the local rock n roll bands The Jaguars and The Easybeats. Both bands played pubs, clubs, cinemas and youths clubs in Barnsley and Sheffield.

Louise Tomes with friends Bev, Joanne, Jillian and Helen, official Mavis Burrows School of Dance panto shots, 1983. From the scrapbooks of Louise Devenney (née Tomes)
Local models at Leslie Frances take part in a hair competition, showcasing then popular New Romantic styles. Early 1980s
David and Maureen pictured together, not long after they met 1964, aged 16.
Local rock n roll band The Jaguars at The Gaumont cinema, stood alongside a display promoting The Beatles film, A Hard Days Night. 1964

LESLIE FRANCES HAIRDRESSING & TRAINING

Leslie Frances Salon in competition in Blackpool, Early 1960s. @Leslie Frances Hair Salon
Leslie Frances Hair Salon in its old location at 4 Eldon Archive, c. early 1960s. @Leslie Frances Hair Salon

Barnsley has had a wealth of hairdressing royalty over the year, including Andrew Barton, Chris Moody, Josh Wood, Robert Eaton and Simon Shaw, to name but a few. Since the 1950s, the Eldon Street area has been home to many salons and barbers, including Leslie Frances Hairdressing. Originally based on the upper floors of 4 Eldon Arcade, and its ground floor from 1980; Leslie Frances moved to their current home, the former Cue Ball Amusements at 58 Eldon Street, in 1994.

Over the years, they have seen many changes in hairdressing technology and hairstyle trends. In the 1960s, their hairdressers were taking part in international hairdressing competitions in Blackpool, in the 1980s they raised money for Hair Cuts For Food Crops, and in 1983 became the first hairdressing approved training organisation in the UK and one of the first to offer the then new Youth Training Schemes.

Were you a teen employee of Leslie Frances? Or do you remember getting your hair done for the first time before a night out? Maybe you studied hair and beauty at Barnsley Tech in the 1970s or 1980s? We’d love to hear your teenage hairdressing stories.

Leslie Frances Hair Salon, 59 Eldon Street, 1994 @Barnsley Archives

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