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Did You Have a Paper Round ?
- Thread starter Old Boy
- Start date
I had a paper round in about 1963 at Martins in St Mary’s Row, Moseley, delivering in Wake Green Road, Oxford Road , St Agnes etc. 7 days a week. I lived in George Street Balsall Heath and would cycle there for the morning round, then on to Dennis Road School. I would come home from school and go out again to do the evening round. The weekends were hard work, especially Sunday, many houses would have 3 Sunday papers and I would make 2 trips with 2 bags each time, but it was all worth it, from memory about £1 /£1.50 per week !
I didn't have a paper round and I don't remember any friends who were girls having a paper round. Think it was quite unusual as the term generally used for paper deliveries was 'paperboy'. Don't remember anyone referring to 'papergirl'. I'm talking here about the 1950s/60s.
yes thinking back viv you are correct...i cant recall seeing a paper girl either
lyn
yes thinking back viv you are correct...i cant recall seeing a paper girl either
lyn
I forget how much i got it was old money yes 7 days a week plus milk round i had to cover for no shows when the other paper boy did not turn up
Sunday was a nightmare
But within months ihad a brand new bike un heard of in them days as we made our own bikes out of parts
Sunday was a nightmare
But within months ihad a brand new bike un heard of in them days as we made our own bikes out of parts
I dont think it was safe because at the time i was doing my rounds they found a body of a young girl just behind the house we lived in
Yes we had the same in Kingstanding, the body of a girl was found in a field. Expect that convinced most patents that delivering newspapers by a girl on her own wasn't sensible, especially in the dark winter mornings and evenings.
maypolebaz
master brummie
I remember wanting a new bike and my parents telling me that I had to pay for it myself. On trying to get a paper round I was told that I had be 13 and had to have a medical. (A spin off from the medical, I was told I needed glasses !).
I ended up being taken on by Westwoods at the Maypole. Another kid and I covered the sprawling prefab estate which became the present day Druids Heath. I got the princely sum of 7/6d a week.
I ended up being taken on by Westwoods at the Maypole. Another kid and I covered the sprawling prefab estate which became the present day Druids Heath. I got the princely sum of 7/6d a week.
izzy eckerslike
master brummie
I had a paper round in Weoley Castle in the 1950's, it lasted one or 2 days. My friend had a paper round where all the papers had the road number written in the corner, so for example Gregory Avenue would have GA23 scribbled on. So I go to a different newsagent and what do I get? a big wooden board with every customer on the round, their address and what papers, comics, magazines etc they have for every day of the week 
So my first day is Sunday morning at 7am and it takes me forever and I end up getting angry comments of men waiting for their papers around mid day probably. Needless to say I quit
So my first day is Sunday morning at 7am and it takes me forever and I end up getting angry comments of men waiting for their papers around mid day probably. Needless to say I quit
No medical or age restrictions at the shop i worked fromI had a paper round in Weoley Castle in the 1950's, it lasted one or 2 days. My friend had a paper round where all the papers had the road number written in the corner, so for example Gregory Avenue would have GA23 scribbled on. So I go to a different newsagent and what do I get? a big wooden board with every customer on the round, their address and what papers, comics, magazines etc they have for every day of the week
So my first day is Sunday morning at 7am and it takes me forever and I end up getting angry comments of men waiting for their papers around mid day probably. Needless to say I quit
Yes i recall other shops having age restrictions
Richard Dye
master brummie
I remember you had to be 13 but not about the medical. I could not get a paper round but got a job at a butchers. Yes, I got my new bike in little over a year!
izzy eckerslike
master brummie
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I definitely had no medical and I'm fairly sure I was only aged 11 as well
My first newspaper round route was at Fosters newsagents on the Coventry Road opposite the Coronet cinema and included two working men’s clubs. The morning round started every day at 7.00am, including Sundays, when the bag was so heavy that I had to go back to the shop three times for refills. The evening round (Evening Dispatch and Birmingham Mail) started at 4.30pm, and on Saturday nights I had to repeat the round at 6.30pm with the” Argus” and “Blue Mail” sports papers. I also had to repeat the round on Sunday lunchtimes to collect the money for the deliveries. Often customers insisted that they had no money, and that they would pay me the following week. This sometimes resulted in Mrs Foster paying them a visit. You didn’t argue with Mrs Foster, although in fairness she was always kind to me! For this work l was paid the princely sum of 7/6d (35p in today’s money). Mom insisted that I pay her 2/6d out of that towards my keep!
In the winter of 1961/2 (the one before the very cold winter of 1962/3), I didn’t have an overcoat nor a topcoat, so on Dad’s advice, I took to wrapping a newspaper around my body under my vest, to keep out the cold. and it worked very well. The only drawback was that I was covered in newsprint!
I was also expected to save up for any clothes that I wanted that were not school clothes. I even managed to save up for a second-hand bike on which one day at 7.00am I was freewheeling down the pavement in Cyril Road. Unfortunately, as I went around the corner, the local bobby was waiting for me. I got the biggest telling off of my life and a clip around the ear for good measure.
A couple of years later I worked on Saturdays and Sundays for the guy in the newsagents (Rickards) on the corner of Holmwood Road and Grange Road. This shop had a contract to supply newspapers, cigarettes and sweets to Little Bromwich Hospital (now Heartlands). He used to drive me, (together with three bags of newspapers and two large tins of fags and sweets) to the hospital in his new Hillman Imp, of which he was very proud. After completing my round, I would return on the no 16 or 17 buses. I made many friends in the wards there and even swapped music magazines with some of the girls! The nurses were notoriously bad payers and I was a sucker for a nurse’s smile (no changes there, then!), so I was often in trouble with my boss. It was very rare for me to return to the shop with any cigarettes, sweets or newspapers, so great was the demand. I used to vary my route around the hospital, so that I didn’t disappoint the same people when I ran out of goods. On Sundays, I cleaned the Hillman Imp for a bit of extra cash.
Richard Dye
master brummie
Great story about life Pedro42! When I got my partime job I too had to start paying for my clothes and bike and I am sure there were many other in similar situations. It was part of our growing up and those times!
Yes bike first
Then some decent cloths
Levis and Docs
Not forgetting
Airfix fits etc