This photo shows shop assistants from Doggarts shop, Stockton High Street. The photo was taken on the roof of the shop, around 1965. Courtesy of Lisa Jackson. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This photo shows shop assistants from Doggarts shop, Stockton High Street. The photo was taken on the roof of the shop, around 1965. Courtesy of Lisa Jackson.
From left to right the girls are Pearl Watling, Mary Dobson, Dot Cook (nee Wright), Dianne Ellis and Marrion Longstaff.
Pearl Watlin, I used to be in the same class as her at school.
I sitting next to Val Rouse (Short dark hair). Girls from left to right are Pearl, Mary, (selling cardigans and jumpers), cannot remember the next girl but could be Vivian, remember her from ladies fashion coats, then me (I was in charge of ladies underwear slips as they where then called and bloomers & vests!) then Val on the end. I got married had a baby then went to South Africa for 35 years(had another two children) just have come back due to husbands ill health. I now live in Shropshire. What a nice surprise to see this picture whilst surfing the net!! Brings back very fond memories.
Norman, try putting the words ‘Doggarts’ and ‘Kidd’ into the search (top right hand corner of every page) together and your comments should appear as if by magic! If you have any more problems let me know…
Seeing this bonny bevy of ex Doggarts girls reminds me of my days working there in 1944. I have mentioned some of my experiences on Picture Stockton previously but still do not know how to find them or refer you to them. Perhaps Sarah may be able to help? I have described the events of the second floor and basement being commandeered for food storage – and the danger of the upper floor collapsing due to the weight. The basement was different because the tins of milk were leaking and condemned. That was two floors occupied by the government? I was just 16 when I went to work as a male shop assistant. I think the wagw was 30/- or £1.50 in today’s money. I was allocated to the Mens Wear Department (Mercery) that meant all goods such as shirts, ties, socks, underclothing, gloves, caps and hats, bracers, cufflinks and STUDS for loose collared shirts. Also Dents men’s leather gloves. Doggarts had a good range from union shirts to dress shirts. Mrs Webber was my chief and the First Sales with just one other girl assistant. No Buyers, it was all central buying from Bishop Auckland. All Goods Tickets had to be kept, and handed in for stock control. Then there were clothing coupons, 1 for a tie 24 for a suit. All stock had to be kept VERY neatly in the cabinets described by the other young ladies. The counters were all glass with brass surrounds and Mens Wear Dept kept these highly polished – my job when not much to do! that did not happen often. Window cleaning and, when invited, dressing the window which was the hightlight of my career in shopwork. For me this came to a sudden stop with heart problems. I tried again at Mathias Robinsons but once more health let me down. However, Dr Edith Armitage was my doctor and suggested I may like to work for her husband Mr C.V.Armitage LDS, RDS, as a Dental Mechanic – this was my salvation and led to an interesting and happy life at the Leeds Dental School and Hospital until my retirement.
Yes, you could be right about the Christian name Lisa. I will ask next time I see her if she worked at Doggarts. I don’t remember a Pearl, I do remember a Heather who was in charge of the toy department in the basement where I worked. One day near Christmas I was sent up to the front window to get a doll’s pram from the display as it was the last one we had. On the way back through the window (they had long displays which went from the pavement to the door through an arcade) I knocked some hats from the millinery department display over. I quickly replaced them onto their individual hat stands, then heard talk later from the girls in the millinery department that customers had been trying hats on and querying the price, saying that was not what it said in the window. I must had put them all back on the wrong stands! Your Mum will remember the air tube system for payments, also the large lift with gates, and the beautiful display cases with individual glass drawers for gloves, hankies, etc. I did not go back there when I left school, as I got a job in the Halifax Building Society, but I did enjoy working there. If I remember correctly, we had to wear black skirt and cardigan and white blouse?
Pat – I asked my mam about the girl on the right. She said her surname is now Rouse, but her first name is Marian? I mentioned that you had also worked at Doggarts, you were probably there at the same time as my mam because she started working there when she left school at 15 (1961). She thinks the names of the other girls are Dot, Mary and Diane, but can’t remember any surnames.
The girl on the right has to be Val Rouse, married to Ken (I don’t know her maiden name), they live near me. If it isn’t she has a double! I had a Saturday job there when I was at school, but left in 1962.
My mother is sitting on the far left, at the time her name was Pearl Watling.