Short Back and Sides - The Life and Times of Walter Oglesby, Gentlemen's Hairdresser (3/3) By Jane Foster

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3),

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I asked Walter did he have any problems coping with the changing hair styles over the years? Well, life got very difficult when hair started to get long. It was a disaster for many hairdressers, but I said it would happen. It resulted in less business, with some shops saying they would have to close. However, Walter saw this as no bad thing, as it got rid of some bad backstreet barbers, and left the good ones to stay open.

As well as being able to recall long gone events in minute detail, Walter also has an uncanny knack of predicting things to come. In the late 60s, Frank Tate eventually passed his business onto Walter. Foreseeing that the docker's way of life was about to fall into history with nothing to show for their long hours of graft, Walter started collecting the tools of the dockers he knew. It seemed a shame that at that time, we had nothing to show that there had been dockers in Hull ( apart from the docks). I decided to do something about this.

When the dockers said that they would probably just throw their tools away, Walter told them to bring them to his shop instead, where they would be hung on the walls and ceiling with their names on them.

Word soon got round and the dockers couldn't bring their tools in fast enough - tomohawks, grain scuttles, and all manner of objects. This became known as The Marfleet Collection. Some of the tools I've got are 100 years old, says Walter. They've been handed down from grandfather to grandsons. Some of the dockers said to me 'if it weren't for you, there'd be no record of us working on the docks'. And they thanked me.

As well as Walter's collection being currently exhibited at the Hull Maritime Museum, there is also the CD Short Back and Sides on sale at the museum shop, priced £10. Visitors to the exhibition can hear it being played in the exhibition space. The Marfleet Collection is now on show at Hull Maritime Museum, Queen Victoria Square.

Check the thisisUll.com Gallery Photographs courtsey and Copyright ©  Jane Foster 2005

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