Eileen was in the best place to endure the cold winters!
Peterborough street photographer Chris Porsz presents another in his series of ‘now and then’ photographs.
Eileen King ran a wool stall at Peterborough market for 50 years.
She started the stall with her husband John when the market was in Cathedral Square and continued when it moved to its new site in Northminster in 1963. After John died, Eileen’s children Andrew and Julie helped on the stall and they later sold picture frames as well as wool when the trade declined.
Eileen, who later ran a garden centre in Lincolnshire, said, “I absolutely loved working at the market, there was always someone to chat to and we got to know all the other stallholders really well. They were proper winters back then and so I did get very cold. Fortunately I had plenty of wooly gloves and hats that I had knitted.
"It was lovely returning for the reunion photo thirty one years later in 2016. I was then 80 but I’m sure I could have still ran the stall. Wool has always been my first love and I’ve knitted since the age of five.”
Eileen found out about her original photo after her daughter’s sister-in-law’s neighbour, who used to be a customer, spotted it in the Evening Telegraph.
The market was demolished in 2020.