Guest tsavo Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I remember Thursday as being 'early closing day' in Sheffield, but am uncertain why it was introduced. It was also refered to as 'half day closing'. Is it still observed or has modern 24 hour shopping sealed it's fate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickjj Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Of course we all know that it used to be Wednesday and that a certain cricket club was formed for shop traders to pass the time away. The rest as they say is history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsavo Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 So why do I remember it as being on a Thursday? Must have been changed at some point. I assumed it was to give shop workers a half day to give them a five and a half day week. Anyone cast some more light on this? Thanks for the Wednesday link, mickjj, I'd forgotten that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunsbyowl1867 Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 So why do I remember it as being on a Thursday? Must have been changed at some point. I assumed it was to give shop workers a half day to give them a five and a half day week. Anyone cast some more light on this? Thanks for the Wednesday link, mickjj, I'd forgotten that. I have read the Wednesday afternoon was for local craftsmen/steelworkers to participate in sport - that may have been unconnected to the shops half day closing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gramps Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 So why do I remember it as being on a Thursday? Must have been changed at some point. I assumed it was to give shop workers a half day to give them a five and a half day week. Anyone cast some more light on this? Thanks for the Wednesday link, mickjj, I'd forgotten that. 'Cos it always was on a Thursday...at least for the shops 'when I were a lad'. Thankfully the corner shop beer-offs used to reopen again for evening licensing hours but some of them were a bit funny about selling anything but liquor. I think it was the Shop Hours Act of 1904 that introduced it, but it was up to local authorities to decide which day of the week should be 'early closing' and enforce it. OTOH a six day 48 hour week was normal in the industrial workplace at that time. Apart from the little mesters who used to keep Saint Monday as a day of leisure. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I have read the Wednesday afternoon was for local craftsmen/steelworkers to participate in sport - that may have been unconnected to the shops half day closing? When I was at university it was standard practice in the university system to not have any lectures, tutorials or classes on Wednesday afternoons so that students could participate in sports. If it was not connected to shops it may have been connected to this. I thought that half day closing varied from place to place, different towns and villages having different days of the week so that there would always be somewhere open in an emergency if you were prepared to travel a bit. Just like different places have different "market days" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukelele lady Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 'Cos it always was on a Thursday...at least for the shops 'when I were a lad'. Thankfully the corner shop beer-offs used to reopen again for evening licensing hours but some of them were a bit funny about selling anything but liquor. I think it was the Shop Hours Act of 1904 that introduced it, but it was up to local authorities to decide which day of the week should be 'early closing' and enforce it. OTOH a six day 48 hour week was normal in the industrial workplace at that time. Apart from the little mesters who used to keep Saint Monday as a day of leisure. I always remember it as a Thursday Gramps, we must have lived in the same area although we used to call it 1 o'clock day. In Germany they close at lunch time on a Saturday and then have a long weekend, [ I'm not talking of the tourist towns] doesn't that make more sense? How can anyone want to shop day, night and Sundays included? I know people who shop just for the day out, I can think of more interesting things to do. I don't like shopping and I'm female, isn't that strange? :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 I always remember it as a Thursday Gramps, we must have lived in the same area although we used to call it 1 o'clock day. In Germany they close at lunch time on a Saturday and then have a long weekend, [ I'm not talking of the tourist towns] doesn't that make more sense? How can anyone want to shop day, night and Sundays included? I know people who shop just for the day out, I can think of more interesting things to do. I don't like shopping and I'm female, isn't that strange? So half day is on Thursday. This was also traditionally "pay day" in the days of weekly cash in hand pay packets. So you get paid and then get the rest of the day off. Nowhere much to spend your wages though as every shop worker was also having the half day off. But the boozers stayed open on Thursdays (although licencing laws dictated that this would be the evening) and they were always full on Thursdays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vtheaker Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thursday was the traditional half day for Sheffield If you shopped at Gleadless Town End, half the shops were shut but the others on the White Lane side of the road were open. Their half day was Wednesday as they came under Derbyshire. Don't think many shops uphold either day now. Vicki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thursday was the traditional half day for Sheffield If you shopped at Gleadless Town End, half the shops were shut but the others on the White Lane side of the road were open. Their half day was Wednesday as they came under Derbyshire. Don't think many shops uphold either day now. Vicki I have shopped at Gleadless Townend with my grandparents and your observations about Thursday on the town side and Wednesday on the Whites lane side are correct. We only used the Whites Lane shops on Thursdays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukelele lady Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Thursday was the traditional half day for Sheffield If you shopped at Gleadless Town End, half the shops were shut but the others on the White Lane side of the road were open. Their half day was Wednesday as they came under Derbyshire. Don't think many shops uphold either day now. Vicki Where I live the chemist is half day Thursday and the Post Office half day Wednesday, you would think they would get their heads together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Where I live the chemist is half day Thursday and the Post Office half day Wednesday, you would think they would get their heads together. Perhaps the chemist was in Sheffield and the post office was in Derbyshire as in the case of Gleadless Townend in previous 2 posts, or perhaps there was some other local or parish boundary between them? Or was the half day closing really on Thursday but the post office staff wanted to get involved in Wednesday afternoon sports so changed theur half day off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukelele lady Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Perhaps the chemist was in Sheffield and the post office was in Derbyshire as in the case of Gleadless Townend in previous 2 posts, or perhaps there was some other local or parish boundary between them? Or was the half day closing really on Thursday but the post office staff wanted to get involved in Wednesday afternoon sports so changed theur half day off? No, they stand side by side in Oughtibridge. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 No, they stand side by side in Oughtibridge. Which of the 2 shops is not conforming to the norm in Oughtibridge? What day of the wek do all the other shops in the area close on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukelele lady Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Which of the 2 shops is not conforming to the norm in Oughtibridge? What day of the wek do all the other shops in the area close on? They've always done there own thing , for years its been different days and as for other shops there's only another 3 who open all the time. No one miinds the different half days as we're all a bit odd out here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayleaf Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Definitely Thursday half day for the shops, but long gone. Uni sports afternoon is still Wednesday Dave. When I were a lad Thursday was the day all the branch libraries closed as well, but they were open all day Saturday, and til 8pm twice a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Definitely Thursday half day for the shops, but long gone. Uni sports afternoon is still Wednesday Dave. When I were a lad Thursday was the day all the branch libraries closed as well, but they were open all day Saturday, and til 8pm twice a week. I'd forgot about that Bayleaf, the libraries did close for half day on Thursdays in Sheffield (probably still do). Where I work in north Derbyshire many shops still have the half day on Wednesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Falls Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Hi, As others have pointed out, Sheffield's early closing day was Thursday. I also remember some of the youngermen and boys who worked in the various shops used to play football on a Thursday afternoon during the season. Some of the bigger shops had complete teams and played one another in what was known, appropriately, as the 'Thursday League'. A friend of mine worked at Stewart and Stewart's and played in the Thursday League from 1952 to c1960. Sometime about 1970, perhaps earlier, the larger shops agreed to move to a five day week. Cole Brother's days off were Sunday and Monday. Debenhams days were Sunday and Thursday. Walsh's and Cockayne's(?) also had the extra day off but I can't remember if it was Monday or Thursday. Incidentally, the shops on Oxford's Street used to take their half day on Saturday and close at 1pm. This was a pain for people in the North. If you needed something special and only Oxford Street was likely to have it or if you just wanted to browse, you had to take the midnight mail train from the old Midland station. That got you into London about 6am. Just in time for breakfast at one of Joe Lyon's Corner Houses. Great fun Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart0742 Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Hi, As others have pointed out, Sheffield's early closing day was Thursday. I also remember some of the youngermen and boys who worked in the various shops used to play football on a Thursday afternoon during the season. Some of the bigger shops had complete teams and played one another in what was known, appropriately, as the 'Thursday League'. A friend of mine worked at Stewart and Stewart's and played in the Thursday League from 1952 to c1960. Sometime about 1970, perhaps earlier, the larger shops agreed to move to a five day week. Cole Brother's days off were Sunday and Monday. Debenhams days were Sunday and Thursday. Walsh's and Cockayne's(?) also had the extra day off but I can't remember if it was Monday or Thursday. Incidentally, the shops on Oxford's Street used to take their half day on Saturday and close at 1pm. This was a pain for people in the North. If you needed something special and only Oxford Street was likely to have it or if you just wanted to browse, you had to take the midnight mail train from the old Midland station. That got you into London about 6am. Just in time for breakfast at one of Joe Lyon's Corner Houses. Great fun Regards Falls, you mention Coles not opening on a Monday, its not long since the ASDA did not open on a Monday, combined with no Sunday opening, if you were there on a Saturday around 4:00pm just before closing, you could get some real bargains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 I also remember some of the youngermen and boys who worked in the various shops used to play football on a Thursday afternoon during the season. Some of the bigger shops had complete teams and played one another in what was known, appropriately, as the 'Thursday League'. A friend of mine worked at Stewart and Stewart's and played in the Thursday League from 1952 to c1960. In another thread to do with the server being busy due to sharing with owlstalk I commented jokingly after being cut off one Thursday evening that it couldn't have been busy due to a Sheffield Wednesday match as it was Thursday and we don't have a team called Sheffield Thursday, ay which point one of our more knowledgable sporting members placed a link to the Thursday league and teams which did play locally on Thursday so they were effectively "Sheffield Thursday" Did "Sheffield Wednesday" start off in a Wednesday league and was it a Wednesday league because that was the local half day closing which would give them time to travel to and play their matches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Went into Chesterfield today (Wednesday) and a lot of places were closed because they still honour early closing on Wednesday in the town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popt Posted May 1, 2009 Share Posted May 1, 2009 And I always thought it was so that Antique Dealers could attend the Thursday auctions! PopT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I always remember it as a Thursday Gramps, we must have lived in the same area although we used to call it 1 o'clock day. In Germany they close at lunch time on a Saturday and then have a long weekend, [ I'm not talking of the tourist towns] doesn't that make more sense? How can anyone want to shop day, night and Sundays included? I know people who shop just for the day out, I can think of more interesting things to do. I don't like shopping and I'm female, isn't that strange? I lived at High Wincobank and 1 o clock day was thursdays, i was always told it was to allow the traders to go to their suppliers and restock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I lived at High Wincobank and 1 o clock day was thursdays, i was always told it was to allow the traders to go to their suppliers and restock. Like the subtle change in the way we all speak slightly differently Dad To me its "half day closing" and yet in another part of Sheffield its known as "one o'clock day" Interesting. I always refer to 5 November as "Bonfire Night" but where I work, in North Derbyshire, only 15 miles away they always call it "Guy Fawkes Night" Same sort of change of emphasis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pidd Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Like the subtle change in the way we all speak slightly differently Dad To me its "half day closing" and yet in another part of Sheffield its known as "one o'clock day" Interesting. I always refer to 5 November as "Bonfire Night" but where I work, in North Derbyshire, only 15 miles away they always call it "Guy Fawkes Night" Same sort of change of emphasis Was Thursday!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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