Worksop hairdresser is retiring after 60 years in business

A Worksop hairdresser is finally enjoying retirement after more than 60 years of lopping locks.
Gordon BassettGordon Bassett
Gordon Bassett

Gordon Bassett, 87, had been running his barber shop on Ryton Street in Worksop since 1956 before retiring last year.

After having to give up driving, Gordon left the business in the hands of his daughter Lorraine, who was already running the unisex hair salon below his first-floor shop.

It marks the end of a career that has seen Gordon win national awards and deal with celebrity clients – and it all began when he was just 14.

Gordon said: “I left school on the Friday and started my hairdressing apprenticeship on the Monday.

“It was a three month preparation and then if you were any good the hairdresser, Percy Osborne in Worksop, would sign you up.

“So after three months he took me down to the solicitor’s office to sign on for a full apprenticeship – I’d never been to a solicitor’s office and it was quite frightening really – but that’s how it all started.”

After completing the apprenticeship, Gordon and his family moved to Blackpool for three years before moving back to Worksop, where he began working in Sheffield.

“In those days you were only on ten pounds a week and you had to pay for your own train fare.

“You did get commission but obviously when you first start at a new shop and you’re competing with five other people, you aren’t going to earn much commission.

“But then my old boss, Mr Osborne, came up trumps again and told me that there was a little shop coming up for sale in Worksop,” Gordon said.

And so it was that at 21, Gordon first started his own shop on Clarence Road in the town.

“On my first week I only took twelve pounds, then the second week I took eighteen pounds, then it kept going up and up.”

Gordon now spends his spare time at his caravan in Sleaford where he spends most of the day fishing.

But despite his hobbies, it seems as though Gordon won’t be able to resist visiting the shop occasionally.