Barrow for your luggage sir? Hard work on a Saturday . .

By Martin Philpot

Saturday morning in the holiday season in the mid-sixties was a real earner for a young lad if you were up to real graft. Crowds of holidaymakers ladened down with heavy suitcases would pour out of the main train and coach stations needing to find their way to the hotels and guesthouses along the seafront. On a good day, I could earn over ten pounds. . My record was eleven pounds five shillings (an important boast for many years). This was a massive amount considering that I also earned three pounds and ten shillings for 5 days work on Rosatti's tea stall!

I started at the age of 12 and the pattern of my day went something like this; Up at 6am , walked from my home near Tollhouse Road in Southtown to my uncle's Steve's on Stafford Road to borrow his barrow (I didn't have my own). By 7am I was at Vauxhall Station awaiting the early arrivals, weighing up the opposition with their barrows also at the ready. As the holiday makers arrived I would call out "barrow for your luggage?" and try and beat the others to custom. I was young and the older barrow boys were tough and aggressive towards me if they felt I was on 'their' patch. I had many a dust-up and you had to be wary - there was a definite pecking order!

There wasn't a rate for your service, you simply said "it's up to you sir" when asked "how much?" People were generally reasonable although I do remember Yorkshire folk or "Yorkies" were the meanest (certainly not the Scottish) and Londoners were the most generous.

A barrow with suitcases piled high pushed from Vauxhall or Beach coach station to a guesthouse in Camperdown is a tough call for a 12 year old and I would carry on all day back and forth until around 4pm - exhausted but loaded! Fish and chips on the way home!

This page was added by Martin Philpot on 06/05/2008.

Poor old (Martin Philpott), Vauxhall Station sounded a hard patch.

I on the other hand I had it easy It was Beach Station just up the road from where I use to live. I also had two older brothers who made me a go cart wide enough to take large suit cases.

Most holiday makers went to Nelson Road Central. I think the furthest one I had was on St.Peters Road corner of Blackfriars. They gave me 2/6 -22p new money. An average Saturday you could earn about ten shillings.

I soon found a better way. I went around some of the b&bs who my mum knew. She was a holiday landlady and found out when the summer visitors were going back home, so all I had to do was collect their cases and take to the station. Mostly it was beach station. I only got one for southtown station but they gave 5/- shillings about 60 pence new.

I was about ten years old at the time.Idont know how some people feel but my summers the sun always seemed to shine. Happy days.

I used to hire a barrow from Mr Harvey on the South Quay for 6 old pennies a day. Then onto vauxhaull station. This was in the late fifties.

I used to go round the coaches selling fruit on a barrow on sunday afternoons at Beach Coach Station in the mid 60s. My customers were glad of something for the journey home, and it was a good trade at the time.
As I was only 16, it was a quick way of making extra money.
I then went on to work on Yarmouth Market selling fruit and veg as i still am today.
John Dearn
on 23/11/2008

I started off when I was about ten or eleven and got into it because a couple of my new mates were doing it when I moved into Newtown and also I had a go-cart and bought a good map. I used to work from the Beach Coach Station, starting around 6a.m. and charge a shilling for a big case and sixpence for a smaller one. You'd try to catch customers as they stepped off the bus with 'Like a barra for your luggage mam or sir? Hopefully by the time you got round to the boot at the back they'd want you to take them. Sometimes there would be a bit of jostling and the driver would tell us off and we'd have to go to the back. The taxi drivers really didn't like us and one big bloke with a large moustache used to swear at us. All us barra boys got on pretty well and when you passed a mate on the other side of the road you'd ask them 'How you getten' on? I never remember having any problems with anyone else over the four seasons I worked the coach station. Sometimes if there was a lull we'd try the railway station down the Conge but I never really made much there.
Whilst I was taking them to their guest house or hotel I would tell them all about the shows and best places to go in Yarmouth - not to miss the chips on the market and the model village.
After the first year I came up with a new idea, when they asked me how much they owed me I said - well whatever you think. Usually they'd give me more than my old rate, one time I even got a ten bob note. If they didn't give me more I'd screw up my face a bit and look at the change in my hand. They'd then feel guilty and ask me what people usually pay and then I'd tell them my old rate. So I made half as much again - getting on for 5 or 6 pounds. Then in my second year I asked my dad if he'd help me build a barrow to fix to the back of my bike to cut the turn round time. I also started taking bookings when I dropped people off so I could pick them up one or two Saturdays later - profits went up again so I was getting well over a tenner most weeks. I bought my first transistor radio with an ear phone and I thought it was marvellous riding along listening to music. Bought my first tent and as I was in a fledgling band a new guitar and speakers which me and Tom built a cabinet for. It was great earning money and having that lovely feeling of a heavy bag of change in your pocket. About half-two as the coaches fizzled out I'd go home, have dinner and count out my earnings on the table. Being a barrow boy made a big difference to my life as it gave me loads of confidence, helped me realise the power of being friendly and determined and most importantly how thinking about things can help you change your life.

Having been brought up in Yarmouth from 1945 to 1952 you have rekindled some wonderful memories of those tough but great days.

I never did the barrow boy stint, but made my pocket money at the quay - racing seagulls to pick up herring the Scottish Trawlers dropped as they unloaded their catches. I then rushed home next door to BHS in Deneside (now sadly gone) washed them and sold them to local boarding houses for 2 old pennies each. I earned enough to pay for my trips to the Empire, Regent & Aquarium Cinemas. I loved the movies and still do!

Interesting to see some of the names of the barrow boys I remember and am sure I went to Great Yarmouth Tech High with one of them (Ronald Hughes)

Thanks for the memories

Edward Sheldrick

My dad was a taxi driver at the time and he told me this was the way to earn my pocket money. He then helped me build a trailer for my bike, so I could get back quicker. It was made from an old bed frame (angle iron), flat wood suface with two bicycle wheels. (It was) hooked up to a bracket to my seat support. I charged a shilling a case. It was a big trailer and one day I met my match. I picked these Scots from the bus station wanted to go to the Seashore Camp. Ok I said, there was 6 of them and they had 10 cases. My poor trailer, and me had a hard time dragging that lot. They were very good and gave me a pound. I then treated myself with a bottle of Lucozade. The day was young. I didn't ask for the return.

I also started early as a 'barra boy' - early in age (6yrs old) with my brother (10 yrs old) and at stupid o'clock in the morning, to try and catch the early birds. You would quite often catch people on their way back to Beach coach station at that time. I was a 'barra boy' on and off for the next 6 years and got to know the roads and hotels almost as good as the taxi drivers (who loathed our presence there). It was a long day and a bit of a slog, especially if you were unlucky enough to get a job to Vauxhall camp or Nelson Road South/Queens Rd. Best jobs were the short haul ones to the Paget Road, Nelson Road Central, Apsley Rd areas, so you could rush back for the next coach arrival. I always remember there being a good camaraderie amongst the 'barra boys' and we would quite often sell, swap or give away our return bookings, if we could not cover them. My dad made my 'barra' and very well balanced one at that. Quite often saw other 'barra' boys fighting with theirs, because the wheels were either too far forward, making it heavy on your hands, or too far back, so they couldn't pull the handles down to raise the 'barra' . Remember a guy called Steven Driver who seemed to have the Rolls Royce of 'barras' - carpeted on top, so as not to scratch the cases and a waterproof cover stowed away in a lockable box underneath, in case of inclement weather. Maybe that's why he was earning £30-£40 a day, while the rest of us were earning £10-£20. Also remember being paid commission by some of the guest house owners for anybody we took to their guest house who hadn't booked accommodation before arriving. Treated ourselves to chips, a Coke and a couple of games in the amusement arcades on the way home and a blow out in Norwich at the end of the summer 'barra boy' season.

What a wonderful afternoon I've had reading all these old recollections. I worked some summer holidays with my pal Martin Jones from Gorleston station up the slope to all the many guest houses and hotels nearby. It was always worth our while and the holidaymakers were always generous with their payments to us, which we used to obtain by being polite and knowledgeable about where to go and what was on etc.. It seemed in those days in the '50's I was always making a bob or two doing things. I also had a trailer on an errand bike which I used to cycle all round town for Chatters the greengrocers and fruiterers on Bell's Road. What with that and then making rolls and drinks at Alfredo's in Regent Road and also earning money as a Choirboy at St. Andrew's on a Saturday,when my folk took me on our holidays, I was never short of spending money! I now live in Kent, but I remember my youth there so well and what a wonderful place it was to grow up in.

I was a Barrow boy in the seventies when I was about 12 yrs old and "Barrowed" for 2 or 3 seasons.The money was quite good for a 12 yr old,depending on how clever and astute you were £30/40 were possible.
I used to go with a lad called David Cox & his brothers,we'd help each other out and share some money.There was a lot of rivalry,which some times led to trouble,especially with older lads,but you stood your ground, sometimes at the risk of your barrow being trashed.If it was you'd make another or repair it.
I used to cover the "Beach" & Vauxhall station, knowing the timetables.Thinking back it was quite funny vying for trade against the taxi drivers,who used to get well wound up,but the holiday makers used to enjoy the walk and you could point out a few sights etc. The Knowledge.
Good business was to get a booking to pick them up in 1 or 2 weeks, I used to carry a book for names and hotels.
It could sometimes be a good trek to the Pleasure Beach end, a chance you took,business is business even at 12.
It was an early start,used to be up 6.30-7.00 am.
But the pleasure came from counting your takings after the last coaches and holiday makers had arrived,sometimes I'd be there until I think about 4.00-4.30.
It's strange to walk past there now with all the housing on the site,but it brought back some good memories,sadly I have no photos of those good times.

I used to be a taxi driver and mostly worked the Beach Coach station.
I really do not know why some taxi drivers didnt like the "Barra Boys" I quite often used to give one of the boys money for bringing me a good job to Hemsby or Caister.
Another reason for apreciating the Barra Boys is they took all the short jobs, leaving the Taxi drivers the better fares.
Pity you do not see thes boys about any more. Its an honest way to earn their pocket money.

Further to my letter on 21/01/09, yes I was a barrow boy who had a dad as a taxi driver. They didn't want the short jobs and welcomed the longer ones - going to the seashore was a mistake! It was too long,and should have given it to a taxi, but you learn by your mistakes don t you. Jobs to Paget Rd etc were fine. While on the subject of taxi drivers, when I was much younger my dad would take me to work with him in the school holidays, as he worked Vauxhall Station. I would clean the car in between trains, and if he had a full load, I would stay behind and wait for him to come back. I remember such names as Bob Nichols, Ronnie Sparham, Frank Leggett, Billy Crane, and George Applegate, the most flamboyant guy you ever met, always a limo, and well dressed. He also, with his wife, ran the cafe on Vauxhall Station - a welcome cup of tea and roll while dad was gone. I remember him telling other drivers off for their language while I was there. Oh what memories, fantastic times!

I too was a barrow boy in the 1950s, I worked the Seashore caravan camp with my elder brother David. There was only 5 barrows allowed on the camp and you had to have an offical pass signed by the camp manager. We were one of the lucky ones as our mother Doris Hipgrave worked in the camp paper shop during the summer season and managed to get us our pass. We were not allowed to charge so we had to accept what the holiday makers were willing to give. The average was half a crown, but if you got a group of say 6 "Teddy Boys" that would be 6 cases on the barrow and they would all give you something so you could make upwards of a pound for 1 run, and whats more they would help to push the barrow. At the end of the day mother would let us keep a bit for sweets and comics and the rest we would invest in Premium Bonds. I still have the Bonds 50 years on and have never won a penny, I still live in hope. Tony Hipgrave 15/04/2010

Re item from E Sheldrake if you are the Sheldrake who went to the Priory boys school on priory plan you also had a brother ?I know one of you if you get this message please contact Mr C Stott at time & Tide about school reunion ok

Re item from E Sheldrake if you are the Sheldrake who went to the Priory boys school on Priory plane you also had a brother ? I know one of you if you get this message please contact Mr C Stott at Time & Tide about school reunion there at 10.30 on the 24th September. ok

I started luggaging in 1948 when I was 9 years old, I made my barrow with old timber and pram wheels, and living in Audley street I didn´t have far to go to work at Beach Station. In those days there were several of us kids living in the streets behind the Garibaldi earning a few bob on a Saturday, Kenny Aldridge and Noel Robinson were a couple of my mates that come to mind, we used to get chased off at times by the old men (they seemed old to me then, but maybe they weren´t) any how they used to hire wheelbarrows from Meadows on south market road for a shilling a day, and I think they had to buy a permit from the Town Hall so they wern´t too happy with us nicking their punters . We used to earn about 5 pound on a saturday in the peak weeks which I think was more than my dad earned in a week. but it averaged about 25 pounds for the whole summer. When I was 11 years old I worked for Teddy Spurgeon delivering newspapers so my Saturdays luggaging was between 8-30 to 3-30 about 5 hours less. Then when I was 13 I got a job working for Cole who had the forecourt of the old Granville Hotel on the corner of Regent Road and Apsley Road selling comic cards and straw hats, so the luggaging stopped but I kept the paper round on. In my spare time I used to get down the "Lucy", the Jubilee Billiard Hall, and misspent my youth, but thats another story.