PONTEFRACT GLOBE TROTTER

ADDED 24 APRIL 2006

The Pontefract Globe Trotter featured in the ‘Years in Focus’ article of January 1957, (also published in the Digest magazine issue 14), was my late Aunt Miss Ada Womack. ‘Auntie’ Ada, as she was to many, sadly passed away in November 2005 at the age of 95. In her later years her eyesight may have failed her but her memories of ‘old’ Pontefract had not, and she was a fan of the Pontefract Digest; I would read extracts from it for her.

Ada and her brothers and sisters grew up in Horsefair - their mother was licensee of the Swan Public House (now Antix Bar) and their father ran a Butcher’s shop from one of the many yards on Horsefair during that time. Perhaps some readers will remember Ada as a shopkeeper running a small shop at ‘Lemons Corner’ at the top of Swanhill Lane? Later with her sister Kath she ran a Hardware and Fancy Goods store on Baghill Lane.

Ada was always full of life and humour - never forgetting her roots and appreciating the good fortune she had to travel the world with the F.A.N.Y.’s and the W.V.S. She had seen the world at its worst and at its best and she passed her experience, knowledge and caring attitude for others onto her many nieces and nephews. She continued her work caring for those less fortunate by becoming a very active member of the Pontefract Branch of the Save the Children Fund – she could be seen with her collecting tin in hand somewhere in Pontefract, even in her mid 80’s.

The many artefacts mentioned in the article printed in the Pontefract and Castleford Express - souvenirs of Ada’s trips overseas, are now spread around the various households of her nieces and nephews forming a constant visual reminder of a lady we miss greatly.

Chris Woffenden

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