100th birthday celebration for well known Doncaster window cleaner and shop owner

Winnie Taylor was a familiar face cleaning the windows in Bentley, when she and her husband Vic ran the window cleaning round in the village on streets like The Homesteads, The Avenue, and Askern Road, from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

She marked her big birthday on January 23 with a birthday party at Charles Court residential home, in Armthorpe, where she now lives, with friends and family and a message from the Queen.

Born in South Elmsall, her first job was working in service at Hooton Pagnell Hall, and she married Vic in 1939.

Vic was a miner at Frickley Colliery, but left the coal industry in the 1950s, and the couple moved to Askern Road, Bentley in 1953. The couple took up their window cleaning round and were well known among residents.

Winnie later went on to get a job working at the Owen and Owen department store on Baxtergate, in the knitting department.

But in the 1980s, her dream came true to run her own shop.

Daughter Doreen Savage said: “She ran Taylor’s Woolshop, just next to one of the pubs on Beckett Road, for several years in the 1980s. She loved the wool shop, because she was really keen on knitting and crocheting. Opening the shop was her dream.”

Winnie initially retired to Bessacarr, and then to a house by the seaside, but Vic died 25 years ago while they were living in Blackpool. Winnie moved back to Doncaster in 2001 to be closer to her family, living at Minden Court, Bentley, until she moved to her current home in 2018 after injuring an arm.

She recently took part in a local history project, sharing her memories as part of a scheme run by Doncaster museum, and nowadays she enjoys playing bingo at the home where she lives.

She has two children, Doreen and Peter, four grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren, who joined her, along with nephews and nieces, at her party in Armthorpe, which had entertainment including a singer.