A FORMER market worker has shared her memories of her first job at a precinct which was later redeveloped into the Crowngate shopping centre.

Ellen Halpin-Barnett held her first Saturday job on the market at the old Blackfriars precinct before it was demolished and redeveloped into the Crowngate shopping centre.

The centre is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Whilst studying her O-levels at Blessed Edwards, Mrs Halpin-Barnett started working on the market’s cheese counter in 1976.

“I first started when I was about 14 and I worked on my own all day,” she said.

“I can always remember getting there and having to pull up the metal shutter by myself.

“There would be huge blocks of cheese and I’d have to cut it up with the wire.

Mrs Halpin-Barnett remembers being paid £5 for a full day’s work on a Saturday.

“All the characters of Worcester would come in on a Saturday. I met all sorts.

“Some of the homeless people would always come in and ask for bits of scrap cheese and meat.

“We would also get really well to-do people because the counter had every kind of cheese available back then.”

“Chicken George would always come in for a dance.”

Having spent a few years on the cheese counter, Mrs Halpin-Barnett moved to the market’s meat counter.

“The meat counter was very different, it was quite an experience.

“They taught me how to cut up all the meats.

I’d cut up a whole sheep and a cow, I’d mince all the meat up to make sausages because they didn’t come pre-packaged like they do now. I’d make all the black pudding.”

“I was only a very slight thing back then too.

“They’d also give me a joint of meat for lunch on a Sunday.”

Mrs Halpin-Barnett also recalls Ken Dodd opening the shopping precinct in 1969.

“He was staying at the Star Hotel where my mom was a manager and she managed to get me an autograph,” she added.