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Hilda Sefton celebrates her retirement at the age of 95 with Barrett’s butchers owner Bob Enwright |
Cut out for the job! Hilda retires from butcher’s at 95
WHEN Hilda Sefton took a job at Barrett’s Butchers in Belsize Park, Doodlebugs were in the air, meat was rationed and deliveries were still carried out by horse and cart.
The 95-year-old cashier kept the accounts of the Englands Lane premises in order for more than 70 years, and greeted the butchers every single day with a cheery “Morning, boys!” until her retirement earlier this month.
Ms Sefton, who lives on the 14th floor of Cayford House in Lawn Road, has seen the world change a great deal since the coupons and hardship of the Second World War.
Emails and credit cards seldom entered her domain – a small office behind the 100-year-old shop floor – and up to last month she was still sending out invoices to customers in a small brown envelope with an “Account Overdue” slip.
“The secret is keeping your mind occupied,” she said. “[When I’m not working] I do crosswords and I read my detective stories. If it weren’t for the giddiness I’d be A1.”
Born in Fleet Road, Ms Sefton got her first job at Belsize Fruit Stores when she was 14. She moved to Dewhurst butcher’s, then Barrett’s when she was 24. She was soon entrusted with the complex accounts books.
Ms Sefton married her husband, a chauffeur, after bumping into him on the Spaniard’s Road.
Bob Enwright, owner of Barrett’s, told how at 91 she walked up all 14 flights of stairs to her flat when the lifts broke. He added: “She is amazing and the customers love her. I’ve worked with her for 47 years and she is like a mother to me. This woman could put up a column of figures quicker than you and me put together. We could do with her back in the shop.” |
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