Austin James. hairdresser, Lydney (General)

by peteressex , Monday, July 16, 2012, 07:14 (4516 days ago)

My cousin and I remember having our hair cut during the 1950s at a gents' salon in Lydney run by a redoubtable Welshman called Austin James.

I was made to have my hair cut there when down from London at my grandparents' in school holidays because he charged about half London prices (ten old pence for a boy's short back and sides, I think was all he wanted.) To the vast amusement of all assembled, Mr James would denounce my hair as having plainly last been cut at vast expense with a knife and fork, but he sticks in my mind as having been a kindly man.

I have only found one current trace of him. It is by way of what looks to have been his marriage in the parish records on this site: Austin Sidney James, hairdresser, of The Institute, Lydney, married Elizabeth Ellen Howell, of Milrough, Forest Road, Lydney, on 14 Jul 1942.

I have often wondered what became of this congenial barber, there being no trace of a salon in his name these days. Does anyone know?