A Worksop hairdresser is finally enjoying retirement after more than 60 years of lopping locks.
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.
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"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.
"There were no laws around opening hours back then so on a Friday I sometimes didn’t catch the bus home until around 9."
After getting married in 1955 and moving in with his wife Doreen on Sherwood Road, another opportunity soon presented itself to Gordon.
The person who he had bought his house from also owned a shop on Ryton Street, and the person who was renting the shop wanted to move out.
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"I went down to have a look at the shop and the baker there, Vin Cheetham, whose hair I used to cut, told me to go for it because within six months a new general post office was opening on the street."
So after around four years at Clarence Road, Gordon began working from his shop in Ryton Street, where the family has worked ever since.
The business went from strength to strength, something which Gordon says could have been down to him being one of the first to introduce an appointments room where people would pay extra to have a trim at a certain time.
But a more lucrative side to the business soon came calling in the form of hairpieces, of which Gordon grew a talent for fitting.
In 1970, at the very first British Hairpiece Championship in London, Gordon was persuaded to compete, culminating in him winning the award.
Those taking part were judged on how convincing their hairpiece looked on a model, and Gordon’s came from someone that had previously produced the hairpieces for James Bond star Sean Connery.
Gordon said: "On that particular day I was competing with big national companies at that time such as Crown Topper and what they didn’t like in those days was anybody coming up from a little place like Worksop to London and winning something like that – it was an honour."
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And Gordon soon began dealing with celebrity clients of his own, including an odd encounter with the 70’s comedian Freddie Starr.
Gordon had been putting up business adverts in the dressing rooms of a club near Doncaster, where Freddie Starr happened to be playing one night.
He said: "He rang me up as if he'd known me for years, that's how he used to talk, and he said that he'd done something daft.
"He told me he'd tried to dye his hair and he'd turned it green and asked if I could help him out.
"I told him to come down to one of our private appointment rooms in Worksop and there were green stripes all across his hair.
"The girl who was trying to sort him out came up to me and told me she couldn't carry on because he was doing his act in front of the mirror and making her laugh too much."
After his wife passed away, Gordon enjoyed spending 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.
He said: "There was a client coming in last week who I knew because I'd been dealing with him for about 40 years and it would have been the first time he'd have gone in the shop without me being there.
"I let Lorraine do everything but I wanted to make sure that he was relaxed and I knew he would be if I was there."
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