RETIREMENT OF JOHN ARTHUR HART 1965

(Ilkeston Pioneer 12th March 1965 p8)

AFTER 50 YEARS "IN THE NEWS" HE'LL STILL GET UP AT 5.30

   It was a cruel winter's day in 1941, and the snow was so deep it came to the top of the hedgerows. Stuck helplessly in a drift in Morley Lane, Stanley, was village newspaper-roundsman John Arthur Hart. "Fortunately, someone spotted me after I had spent 15 frightening minutes there" Mr Hart told me, reflecting this week on his most vivid - and certainly worst - experience in more than 50 years of newspaper distribution which is to end (officially, that is!), on April 3rd.

   So the papers were delivered on that winter's day. The customers need never have worried. Neither weather nor anything else ever defeated John Arthur Hart. This bachelor, who will be 65 in July, his 85-year old mother Mrs Anne Bull, late stepfather Mr Arthur Bull and sister Mrs Elizabeth Hemstock, have built up a fine family tradition of unfailing courtesy and service to the people of Stanley and district.

   "We could not have done it without the considerable help of other members of the family and friends" insists Mrs Hemstock, " and now that our business is to be taken over I should like to thank them and all our customers."

   She added "We have derived great pleasure and interest from producing the service. We have always tried to oblige the customer and our motto has been " Keep everybody happy."

   When Mr and Mrs Bull began taking out the papers from their Station Road, Stanley, home the total demand for daily papers was four. The then Vicar of Stanley was one of the quartet. But by March 1917 the business was flourishing, and when Mr John Derek Mallett, who runs the general stores in Stanley with his wife, takes over the business on April 5th, he will have over 200 homes on his newspaper round.

   He can also count on the help of the "retired" John Arthur Hart, who will continue to rise at 5.30 each morning, get out his cycle and do a round " until I reach my 65th birthday " as he says.

   Mr Hart, still sprightly and looking much younger than his years, has never used anything other than a push bike for his rounds. He covers about ten miles in the morning and the same number at night for the houses he visits are widely scattered.

   Until last September, when the railway station three quarters of a mile up the road was closed, Mr Hart had to meet the trains. Now the papers are brought right to the door by van.

   Increasing the hazards in the old days was the total lack of street lighting. Not until the business had been on the go for 13 years did electric lights appear in Stanley. There never were any gas lamps in the village.

   Mr and Mrs Bull, it must be said, had a flair for business from the start. Mrs Bull's parents had a grocery shop in nearby Mapperley, and Mr Bull had been a reputable milkman in Nottingham.

   " Our father died when we were all very young " says Mrs Hemstock, " but Mr Bull, our step-father, was a fine, obliging man whose business acumen was invaluable. He died three years ago, aged 93, and did a round of papers until he had turned 87."

   When Mr Bull celebrated his 90th birthday, customers' children  took him home-made biscuits and other gifts as a sign of the respect and admiration felt for him in the village.

   Bustling good health and longevity are the accepted thing in this household. Mr Hart has never had a day's holiday since the business started - " and my doctor has never heard of me " he grins.

   Stanley and the surrounding district will miss this cheerful, good-natured family, who have never failed to deliver the news to their doorsteps. All of us in newspapers wish them a happy future.

Back to "Stanley in Print" index