Harry Pearson on shopping at Jack Hatfield's

Redwurzel

Redwurzel

Well-known member
I had to laugh out loud this morning on how Harry Pearson described going to Jack Hatfield's for some boys football boots in 1970ish, when reading his book the The Farther Corner. I don't think he will mind me quoting a small bit.

"The Hatfield brothers were fantastic salesmen. They shouted and yelled and rushed about, scaling ladders and rugby passing shoeboxes, subbuteo sets and badminton racquets to one another over the heads of customers, speaking all the while in rapid fire Teesside double speak. To shop there was like being in a Marx Brothers movie, or an episode of Top Cat voiced by Tony Mowbray and Chris Kamara."

I remember going in 1971 or 1972 after a brutal and bloody set of teeth extractions on me as a boy. To compensate I was given the day off school and was taken to JH's where I was bought Boro's Black and Blue (Inter style) away top and a rules of Cricket book. My memories of the Borough Road shop was that it had a high ceiling and lots of glass counters and smelt of leather and fresh cotton. It wasn' as frantic as Harry P's describes but he was midday mid week.
 
Was lucky enough to work at Dolland and Aitchison when they were customers of ours (the shop just outside the Dundas Arcade). Also had Harold Sheperdson, Frank Soraggon and a few other ex Boro players. Had some great conversations with them
 
NZBoro1 said:
Was lucky enough to work at Dolland and Aitchison when they were customers of ours (the shop just outside the Dundas Arcade). Also had Harold Sheperdson, Frank Soraggon and a few other ex Boro players. Had some great conversations with them
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Frank Soraggon ?
Wasn't he a character in Game of Thrones ?

Hahaha
 
Start off in Romer Parrish upstairs checking out the train set with your gang of mates . Saturday film show at the ABC followed by pilgrimage to Jack Hatfields .

Then fearnleys on Linny Road for top 100 in the window . Boro fish Bar about the time the away fans were paraded down Linny Road by the mounted police and stare out their fans holding our bag of beans n chips in newspaper .Then Ayresome for a squeeze.

Most of the time in JHs you were just dreaming , drooling over what you couldn’t ever afford . Fabulous memories and whole day cost about a quid in coins ( cinema and chips ) .

Not bad for being in your early 20s 😎

ps you earned the coins in paper round money , so the day was self sufficient .
 
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Borobarmy said:
Start off in Romer Parrish upstairs checking out the train set with your gang of mates . Saturday film show at the ABC followed by pilgrimage to Jack Hatfields .

Then fearnleys on Linny Road for top 100 in the window . Boro fish Bar about the time the away fans were paraded down Linny Road by the mounted police and stare out their fans holding our bag of beans n chips in newspaper .Then Ayresome for a squeeze.

Most of the time in JHs you were just dreaming , drooling over what you couldn’t ever afford . Fabulous memories and whole day cost about a quid in coins ( cinema and chips ) .

Not bad for being in your early 20s 😎

ps you earned the coins in paper round money , so the day was self sufficient .
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Thank you very much Minors
 
I use to love being taken to Jack Hatfield's as a child and going myself in my teenage years. They always made a fuss of everyone who went in, made all customers feel special with their knowledge on the equipment they sold and would make sure it was right for you. It wasn't about the sale, it was all about customer satisfaction. As a teenager they would enquire 'where are you from' and knock a £1 off for the bus fare.

I took my lads in there for their cricket whites and the youngest referees equipment. Although it was under new ownership, it was an old member of staff who had taken over and the customer service was still the same.
 
Used to go there to get my casey pumped up and re-laced. Just watching them carry out this task was a show in itself as they used their massive arms to pull in the new lace and tighten it up using tyre lever type hand tools. They always asked where you were from and if you came on the bus, then they would refund you a tanner for your fare.
 
I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" again - it still captivates me, how we leave footprints from what we do in life. In the film with George Bailey, he had through his actions and non actions made others people lives better. It took an angel to show him the full extent of the good he had done.

We do this in small ways, with how we spend money and even our time nowadays. If you want a Jack Hadfields shop there, otherwise you end up with Sports Direct and Amazon as Norman C correctly states. I do try and use organisations like the Co-Op and local independent shops as well as giving funds to charities and the Boro.
 
Redwurzel said:
I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" again - it still captivates me, how we leave footprints from what we do in life. In the film with George Bailey, he had through his actions and non actions made others people lives better. It took an angel to show him the full extent of the good he had done.

We do this in small ways, with how we spend money and even our time nowadays. If you want a Jack Hadfields shop there, otherwise you end up with Sports Direct and Amazon as Norman C correctly states. I do try and use organisations like the Co-Op and local independent shops as well as giving funds to charities and the Boro.
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I was listening to Bob Fischer’s book show some time back and a local bookshop owner stated if we all spent £5 in our local shops it would put somewhere between 3 and 5 million in the local economy.
 
We were home for a couple of weeks holiday, from living abroad. It will have been '98 or '99. My eldest was Shearer mad (He was about 8) and I took a Newcastle shirt in for them to put a red no 9 on. On the day it was ready I gave my lad some money + sent him into the shop while I waited outside in the car. He came out with the shirt, handed me all the money back and said 'The man said you've got to put this towards buying me a proper Boro shirt .........Fantastic shop- loved the smell and the sales banter in there :)
 
Norman_Conquest said:
I was listening to Bob Fischer’s book show some time back and a local bookshop owner stated if we all spent £5 in our local shops it would put somewhere between 3 and 5 million in the local economy.
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Wow. What a difference that would make. I decided to put all copies of My Boro Debut in local bookshops once they could open, along with the Boro shop. Every little helps.
 
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