FRANK

Lincoln
27 February 2004

We was in class, you know, just another day, and the teacher said “right lads and lasses, whose leaving school at Easter?” and January 7th is my birthday so that’s me. So he says, “put your hands up”.

BD. Was that when you were about fifteen?

I was fourteen. So I was technically fourteen when I left school. But I put my hand up and they said get yourselves brushed up and get yourselves down the secretaries office Pat Hemish (?) is down there to do the careers. So I thought fair enough like and we was all there waiting to see him, one by one we went in and I thought I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna be, but anyway, we went in and I met Pat, nice chap, strangely enough later on when I’d finished my training and got my shop, he come in for his haircut until he sadly died last year which was a great shame.

BD. What, was he a regular?

He was a regular, yeah. He was a great guy. But anyway, he said “now young FRANK, what are you gonna be?’
I said “well, I ain’t had really a lot a thought, but I think one of the things I wouldn’t mind being is a chef. ‘Cause I said you never go hungry do you.”
He say’s “well that’s a good thing” but he says “do you like CHRIStmas Easter and bank holidays?”
“Yeah” I said.
“Well you won’t get them cause you’ll have to work when everyone else is enjoying themselves”
I says “oh right”.
Anyway situation was he say’s “have ten minutes round the playground and think something else.”
 So I had a plod round kicking a few bits a litter about and I came back and he said “right, what’ve you made your mind up”
I said “well I don’t fancy going into industry cause all the industry in the city are making excavators and things like that”. I din’t fancy being a plater and things like that. So I thought, the guy down the road, he’s always happy and he’s a barber. He’s always chatty and laughing and enjoying himself and he’s making money at the same time. So I thought “I’ll be a barber I think, Pat” so he had a little look through his little file of tickets and one of em that came up was a barbers, well they called them gentleman’s hairdressers in those days, and there was an apprentiship job going at the Stonebow, which is the central section of the city, it’s where the mayor presides on the right hand side of the Stonebow and Higgs, where I did my apprentiship was on the right hand side. There’s a picture on the wall there to show where I did my apprentiship. Situation was he gave me five shillings, said “get yourself down to see jack Brammer”.

BD. What was the five shilling for?

To catch the bus and get a sandwich, something like that, because I’d missed my dinner you see. I’d missed my dinner at school. So I just had a brush up and got on the bus and went down to the Stonebow thinking about what I’d say to the chap when I went in. Anyway, I went through this lovely aroma of cigars and tobacco.

BD. Like a proper old tobacconist?

Oh, yeah. Marvelous. It had been there since the 1880 period I think it opened for trading. Mr. Brammer was there smoking his pipe and he said “now lad what do you want?”
I said “ I’ve come about the job Mr. Brammer, about the hairdressing apprentiship job.”
He say’s “Where are you from?”
I said “St. Peter and Paul’s catholic School.”
He say’s “How old are you?”
I said “14”
He says “That’s a bit young’
I said “Well it’s me birthday after CHRIStmas.”
He say’s “Right. What do you want to be then?”
“I fancy being a barber.”
“How long you thought about that?”
I says “All me life”
“Aw” he says “that’s marvelous. Well I’d love to give you an opportunity. You’re keen. Alright you can start after CHRIStmas. 7th of January. 8.30 sharp.”
Little did I realize 7th of January was my birthday and I was fifteen. So I started work at Higgs Bros. 7th of January 1963, 8.30 sharp.

BD. And how long was the apprentiship?

The apprentiship was three years but then you had two years as an approver. Really all that systematically meant was that the company made a couple more years out of you at a lower ratio of pay. You really had to fulfill the five years which is fair dos after they’ve spent three years giving you a trade.
My first wage package was two guinnies. But after stoppages I got £1.13 and 5d. but the point being that my mother wanted a pound so I only got 13 and 5d. Now a decent jumper, even in those days, was £4 so that was about a fortnight of your money even just to buy a jumper or, you know, a shirt or something like that. So you can appreciate, they talk about money not going far today but it didn’t go very far in ’63 either.

BD. There was less to spend it on though.

Yeah, fair comment. You didn’t quite have the things that the modern youth has today. But erm I think your realization of what you wanted in those days was, well I don’t know, as long as you could go to the pictures or the football that was okay. So things were a little more simplified in those days.

BD. And how long have you been going?

I’m now approaching my 42nd year in the trade. But I got my first shop across the road in 1968 and then I came across here in 1970.

BD. Did you live upstairs then?

I lived upstairs. But after a while it got on your nerves because you get that bloody fed up being in the same four walls. But after a while family comes along and you need a bigger dwelling and you move on and that’s life.

BD. The painting you’ve got up on the wall there, who’s done that for you?

There’s a guy in Lincoln, a super artist, a guy called Stuart Pearson. I’m involved with charity work in the city. I work with the mayor’s officer, Joe Cook MBE. We do various things every year and one of the things we do was the brayford by night but the reason behind the picture was the fact that Stuart apparently did something for some history lessons and he wanted to do various old shops of Lincoln because he said probably another 20 years these type of shops won’t be around. You’ll have ‘Hair by Dominique’ or erm ‘Urban Angels’ or something like that. You’ll be paying the director something like £27 to cut your hair, well I can do it just as well and did you know the sign of a good haircut is when there’s no blood running down your neck. Anyway  the thing is in the picture the guy who is bringing the bag there is my right hand man who works in the shop and that’s Wiggy. Mr Wiggy. And he’s worked here for four or five years now. Smashing chap. Great lad.

BD. And is that a traditional barbers pole? Did you have that up as soon as you moved in here?

Well the red and white poll was always something people used to always depict the barbers and where to have your haircut and of course the modern generation doesn’t really know the history of it to the point where they look to the modern hair dressing establishment rather than the red and white pole. I had a group of children outside one day and they were doing some class on various signs in the city and I went out to the teacher and I asked all the kids what does that red and white poll mean and one of the kids blurted out from the back “Do you sell rock?” I said no I don’t sell rock it’s a barbers so I was a bit disalusioned with this so I made up some flyers that was a slight potted history of what the barbers poll meant. And I then gave the teacher these little items to give to the class so they can read up on it and realise again that part of our tradition is lost.
The emphasis of the barbers poll is that years ago they were sort of dentists and doctors, apparently the red and white poll should have a kidney dish hanging from the poll and the kidney dish used to denote that the barber used to extract teeth and of course you can’t put one up there now because it would just be stolen. But the red and white is the emphasis of the blood and bandage and the ones that have blue in the poll is the venus blood which is the bad blood so when the barber used to do blood letting they used to go around with a poll and at the end of the poll was a brass knob and you turned the knob to a point where inside they used to have leaches and they used to take the leaches and put it onto the leg and that used to extract the amount of blood from the leg. And then they used to put the poll against the leg and the blood used to twine around the poll to the bowl. Then of course the white on the poll is when they used to clean the bandages they used to put them on the washing line and with the wind they used to twirl and that is where you get it. That’s only really a short piece on it.
But as I say in a few years all these will be gone. It’ll be places like you see on telly with ‘The Salon’. Years ago a man wouldn’t be seen in a lady’s hairdressers. It was a place where the father took the son
When I wanted to rent the place across the road I couldn’t afford to buy a place and there was an old guy who owned all the houses right along the road and this guy was called Peg-Leg Edwards. And I went to see him and I asked him if I could rent a shop, I told him I wanted it as a barbers shop. He says “well you can have it. £1.50 a week” I thought ooh hell. I was only getting 12d for a hair cut and once you paid for the electric and that I thought how am I gonna afford that. So told him I didn’t think I could afford it. It was a lot of money. He say’s “I tell you what, a £1 but I want a free haircut.” I said done and that was it really. My introduction to getting my first shop.