Figure 1.--Here we see a 1950s English photograph showing an errand boy on his bicycle. Notice the whicker basket. He is making a delivery for a butcher. Areader writes, "The location of this photograph was taken in northeast England at the boundary with the village of Whitburn and the then town of Sunderland, which were then in County Durham, until they were absorbed into the new metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear in 1974.

Errand boys continued to be a common site on British streets into the 1960s. Boys were often employed by shops to take small deliveries to customers. After World War II these deliveries were commonly made by bicycles. I'm not sure about the ages of the boys involved, but think they were often teenagers that had left school. In the case of the errand boy seen here you can tell the boy was employed by a butcher because of the coat he is wearing (figure 1), A HBC reader writes, The coat he is wearing is similar to the one I wore when I worked for Walls." By the 1970s these home deliveries became less and less common. We are not sure precisely why. But the full adoption of American style self selection and increasing numbers of children finishing school were both factors. As was the great English car ownbership.

Erand Boys

Errand boys continued to be a common site on British streets into the 1960s. Boys were often employed by shops to take small deliveries to customers. After World War II these deliveries were commonly made by bicycles. I'm not sure about the ages of the boys involved, but think they were often teenagers that had left school. In the case of the errand boy seen here you can tell the boy was employed by a butcher because of the coat he is wearing (figure 1), A HBC reader writes, The coat he is wearing is similar to the one I wore when I worked for Walls." By the 1970s these home deliveries became less and less common. We are not sure precisely why. But the full adoption of American style self selection and increasing numbers of children finishing school were both factors. As was the great English car ownbership. Notice the almost complete lack of traffic on this street at the time. Britain thanks to the Labour Party did not enjoy a post-World War II economic miracle like the rest of Western Europe.

Economic Buses

The Economic buses began operating in Whitburn (1925). The two partners who created the company were G R Anderson and A W Wilson. This was not their first venture, both men had commenced their first independent bus service in West Stanley some 16 miles from Whitburn. It was at the beginning of 1925 that both men decided to leave their jobs with Northern General at its bus garage in Stanley and have a go themselves. A daily service began between Stanley and Chester-le-Street, Anderson purchasing a 12-seat Siddeley-Deasy, converted from a World War I 1914-18 ambulance. Wilson operated a 14 seat Reo Speedwagon. Economic buses ran from South Shields to Sunderland, the service ran daily every half-hour on weekdays including Sundays and every 20 minutes on Saturday. The Labour Government elected in 1945 included transport in its list of nationalized industries. And thus included busses. Than as many of these industries under Governent control started to pile up serious deficits, conservative governments energized by Mrs. Thatcher began to privatize them (1980s). (The dynamic is that if the Government had to use state funds to subsidize state-owned industries--which don't pay taxes--, there is less money avilable for the Natioanl Health Sysytem and social welfare priograms.)

Reader Comment

A reader writes, "You may be interested to know that my second job after I left school was as a Van Boy for a firm called Walls. They specialised in foods such as ice-cream, sausages, pies and bacon among other things. I assisted the salesman who took the order from a shopkeeper or department head if we visited a store like Woolworth's for example and then I went to the van to make that order up. As soon as we finished the last shop we did the stock and balanced this against the cash taken or credit notes returned. When we returned to the depot I unloaded any items that were returned because of being past their sell by date and then I went to the refrigerator in the warehouse and got the stock ready for the next day. I was only allowed to work so many hours a week (42 in 1962) and if I exceeded the maximum amount of hours worked I was given a day off. I liked the job as it meant travelling around the area where I lived rather than being stuck in one place. I was paid bonuses for putting up promotional posters in shop windows and for washing and cleaning out the van. I was also paid a laundry allowance for my uniform, which was a navy blue dustcoat that had white vertical stripes down the material and as I was working with food, even though it was packaged I had to wear a navy blue beret. There was one Friday when I was in a grocers waiting to take an order from the shopkeeper, that I eavesdropped on a conversation between two women. One of them told the other that she had bought her son some shorts, "to make him look younger." she said. I've no idea why she would want to do this."

Created: February 14, 2004
Last updated: 12:04 PM 12/8/2020