Episode 10 - Cookies Barbers

The Highbridge Podcast

Podcast ident 0:10
You're listening to the Highbridge Podcast celebrating the people, places and history of the Highbridge area in the Sedgemoor area

Mell 0:27
Celebrating the history people and places in the HIghbridge Sedgemoor area of Somerset this season is funded by Seed which is a consortium of community organisations in Sedgemoor comprising of Bridgewater Senior Citizens Forum Bridgewater Town Council, Community Council for Somerset homes in Sedgemoor, Somerset Film and Young Somerset, which is funded and supported by Arts Council England, Creative People in places Lottery Funding and the Arts Council. The main aim of the project is to focus on the people, places and activities in and around Highbridge. It's important to remember that history is not just about recording the past, but also recording what is happening now as we create history for future generations. If you enjoy what you hear, do tell your friends and ask them to subscribe to hear future editions for free. So let's continue. According to Wikipedia HIghbridge was originally a market town on the edge of the Somerset levels in the UK, near the mouth of the river Brue and although it's no longer a market town, the market site is now a housing estate. Highbridge is in the district of Sedgemoor and the town of Highbridge closely neighbors, Burnham on sea, forming part of the combined parish of Burnham on Sea and Highbridge and shares a town council with a resort town. In the 2011 census. The population of the town was included in the ward of Highbridge and Burnham Marine, which totaled 7,555. For this edition, I went to get my haircut and I went along to Cookies to find out more about the generations of barbers in his family. So today I'm speaking to Mark Cook or sometimes known as cookie, who's basically the barber that goes back in time and the family go back in time. So tell me a little bit about how the shop all started

Mark 2:26
Well its my great grandfather, George Cook who sets it off originally so he used to live in Bridgewater funnily enough. So he was I think he was 1883 if my maths is correct they started it all off. And he used to actually walk from Bridgewater to Highbridge to cut people's hair then walk home again, which was a hell of a journey. So I've gotten so long it took him and it wasn't the straight road it is now either do I mean it was sort of cut through he used to go through the back of West Huntspill so it was a right old journey when you first started

Mell 2:55
So was that was that this this shop?

Mark 2:57
Wasn't this shop unfortunately no, it was it was known as Corn Hill House, which is where the roundabout, the small roundabout by where FF & F used to be and the town clock is now it used to be a row of cottages that used to go right the way back through up to the market there. And we have a three shops on the front which which would have been a Brabers a fruit shop and a flower shop, which my Gran run. And then later on my my granddad's and his brother took over the barbers business went into there, then my dad went in then the I think the council compulsory purchased it because the lorries became 40 tons and couldn't get around the roundabout. So we were there for 99 years at the time, but they wouldn't let allow us to have 100 year, then they kicked us out. And then they left it there for four years before they knocked it down. And then unfortunately, the guy who owned this died and dad bought this. And we moved over to here, which is where I've been for the lastthirty three years.

Mell 3:51
So there's four generations. that's a lot of time that so you must have been handed down lots of stories of how things used to

Mark 4:01
Absolutely, yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's hundreds of stories. I think getting back off how things used to be to compare to now, obviously, we've gone to appointments now, which is a real shocker, where there was just a sort of a walking culture, you know, back in the day when it started off. I don't think my granddad started or my great granddad I don't think he even started cutting hair. I think he was doing beards. I think nobody had a beard. So they started off just having bedrooms originally with the cutthroats because nobody could do it at home or as well. And then there was a sort of it sort of sort of evolved into sort of, could you just take a bit of rain in the air and then I think that's how he actually was I don't think he ever trained do you know what I mean it was just one of those things that he sort of graduated in, then it was taken a bit more often then he got a little bit a little bit better and just progressed through there to become a barber.

So he was never above to start with

That's right. he was shaving you. I mean, and then I think it just graduated from shaving into sort of barbarism as it were, so it sort of went through into, you know, haircuts and then got better at it but don't know how he became so popular here. But obviously, obviously his son then moved here and lived in the shop opposite which was my great my granddad. So Ray and Fred didn't quite have the reputation and all fairness, they were sort of they were pigeon fanciers. So it would be nothing for somebody to sit there for half an hour, where they were at the back, they had the two chairs as they would have been left and right of a wall. And then there was a window. And if they ever seen one of their pigeons come home, that's it. They were gone. The bloke was left in the chair on his own, they were out the back door on a call with this pigeon down off the roof to get his ring in and clock it in because there was a racing pigeon and that's what that was their thing. So it'd be nothing for a bloke to walk out with half a haircut and get fed up with waiting, just throw the gown on the floor and walk out

Mell 5:36
I notice noticed. Occasionally we've seen pigeon lorries. Yeah. And they released them. But it's something that's died out.

Mark 5:44
Yeah, that doesn't seem to work. Another things thats changed unfortunately, that used to happen loads, you know, these to sort of take pigeons from all over the country. And then they released them, they still have one up sort of what used to be Willits, which is the back across the road here where the market used to be in the nice to have thousands and then they would just let him go, and then they would fly back in the time them to wherever home is. And the first one back wins, you know, so was it

Mell 6:03
Was it just a natural progression that each generation went into becoming a barber and took over the business? So it's

Mark 6:08
Yeah, it seems to have been that way. You know, everybody on my dad's side has been a boy. So I mean, so it's just an everybody has been a boy has gone into the barbering. So it just seemed to be a natural progression. Yeah, I don't think I even ever thought about it really, until I got to about 15 or 16. And dad said, "What do you want to do?" And I was like, Oh, be a barber, I suppose isn't it is the family trade it was? And we just went into it. And then I just fell into it.

Mell 6:32
So did you get a chance to work with your father

Mark 6:33
Yes, yeah, I work with dad. I went off and trained as a lady's hairdresser first. For four years, and then I came back to work here was a story that went with that, unfortunately, my dad, the guy that used to work with my dad ended up robbing him. As you do, so, he worked with dad for 36 years, I think, unfortunately, sticky for it used to be of a gambler. So unfortunately, the sticky fingers got the better of him. And he ended up robbing dads. So in the end, he sort of said, right, we'll ...