JEAN SIDEBOTTOM spent most of her childhood moving between relatives in Scarborough and Scotland. She is the longest serving member of staff at Boyes and remembers a powerful monkey running riot in the store. She spoke to reporter Dave Barry.
JEAN’S arrival in Scarborough was under tragic circumstances.
Born in Hackney, London, Jean was two when her mum died from a blood clot, aged 25, while giving birth to Jean’s sister, leaving Jean with no memories of her mum.
Her dad was ill so the responsibility of raising Jean transferred to her gran, Jean Collison, who lived at 90 Castle Road in Scarborough.
Her baby sister, Iris, was despatched to an aunt in Scotland until she was 5, when she moved to Scarborough. But Jean wasn’t told that Iris was her sister and initially thought she was her cousin. Today, Iris lives with her son in Lossiemouth near Elgin, on the east coast of Scotland.
Despite losing her mum, Jean had a happy childhood, attending Friarage School in the old town and Central School, which was in Melrose Street.
She rose early as she had to serve breakfast to guests in her gran’s boarding house.
The place was so busy that Jean was sent to Scotland every year from Easter to the end of summer, until she was about 13. She was passed between aunties in Stonehouse, Strathaven, Hamilton, East Kilbride and Fraserburgh, returning to Scarborough with a Scots accent in the autumn.
When she was in her teens, besides helping at the boarding house, Jean worked at most places on the seafront, including Bamfords near the Newcastle Packet pub, serving snacks and fish and chips.
When she started work at Boyes part-time in 1962, aged 14, she was “frightened to death”, although “everyone really nice”.
The manager was Gerry van der Heijden, an energetic, thickset man who was “always busy, flying about, taking stairs four at a time”. His son Robert has worked at Boyes for about 30 years.
In those days, customers couldn’t browse through the products; they had to go to a counter and ask for something, whichwouldbe brought to them. Wedding receptions were held in the cafeteria, which was then on the second floor.
Since then, the number of staff has fallen dramatically, from 138 to 35, while the range of products has risen.
Jean became a full-time employee when she was 15, working on the babyware counter.
In common with many stores at the time, various animals were kept in cages for the entertainment of customers, including monkeys, chipmunks and budgies. People would visit the store just to see them. Jean liked a monkey called Lulu.
“She used to look at you as if she understood exactly what you were saying,” she says.
Jean vividly remembers the day one of the monkeys escaped from the cage and ran amok on the second floor. “Jacko was very strong and real bad tempered,” Jean says. “He ran across the top floor, wrecking the place, and threw a big pram off a plinth. Eventually, Ernie Bayes sedated him with a dart and threw a net over him.”
The company is run by cousins Tim and Andrew Boyes, who are great grandsons of founder William Boyes, and who are referred to by staff as Mr Tim and Mr Andrew.
The family firm sounds like a big extended family. “Everyone’s really friendly and there’s always someone there for you,” says Jean, who enjoys her work and the companionship.
In her time at Boyes, she has made many friends among both staff and customers; one became her husband.
David Sidebottom, the manager of Pickfords Removals on Northway, used to visit the store as a customer and to say hello to friends who worked there.
The couple lived in Scunthorpe for four years after David became manager of Pickfords in the town. In 1974, he helped deal with the aftermath of the Flixborough disaster, an explosion at a chemical plant which killed 28 people and seriously injured 36.
Many people had to be evacuated and their homes emptied of furniture.
Jean and David married in Scunthorpe in 1976 and their daughters were born there. Sarah is now 36 and, with partner Steve Dunster, has provided her parents with two grandchildren: Isabel, or Izzy, 5, and Katie, 2. Michele, 34, and her partner Graham Usher have a son Joe, 14, and two daughters: Libby, 7, and Maddy, 5.
Jean and David returned to Scarborough after David applied to be transferred to Hull. At the interview, he was informed that his old job had suddenly become available again. On the phone, when Jean asked if he had got the job, he said “Yes – but not the one I went for; we’re moving back to Scarborough!” Jean says: “We liked Scunthorpe but Scarborough is better; we were really pleased to come home.”
After 23 years with Pickfords, the firm started to close branches down and David saw the writing on the wall. “They offered us Scotland or somewhere down south but we didn’t want to go so he left,” Jean says.
As one door closed, another opened. The couple bought Eyres newsagents in Scalby Road from Cliff Eyre 20 years ago. When Jean reached 60, she reduced her hours at Boyes to 22 a week. But she remains fully employed as she helps David at the newsagents. “It’s hard work with long hours,” she says.
Jean is fairly fit for a woman of 63. She likes walking, swimming and zumba, and always uses the stairs at work, not the lift.
The Sidebottoms are a close family, living near each other, spending Christmas together and sharing a motorhome. Jean joined Sarah and her family for a holiday at Butlins in Skegness last year. Jean and David, who live in Almond Grove, go on walking holidays in the Peak District, Northumbria, etc. They have had holidays in the Greek islands, Portugal, Norway, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Germany and Florida.
Jean collects old Scarborough postcards; her favourite is one of the Mere from about 100 years ago, when it bore no resemblance to today’s scene.