Shirley Head nee Preston recently was having a sort out and came across a picture, taken when she was working at a Boscombe solicitors, Maslen & Maslen circa 1950 when she was 17 years old.

The solicitors were situated at 596 and 602 Christchurch Road, Boscombe, with two solicitors Mr Walter Arthur Maslen, father, and Mr Arthur Meaden Maslen, son, who were address as Mr Walter and Mr Arthur.

Shirley joined the firm in 1948, upon leaving school at 15 and a days work for her consisted of during the cooler months lighting the gas fires in the office on arrival as there was no central heating back then. Next Shirley would spend time in the general office learning to operate the switchboard then moving on to the ‘by hand’ deliveries to the other solicitors and local estate agents in the vicinity.

With the end of the Second World War, the office still received free hot chocolate mix from the Government, so another task was to make drinks for the staff.

The rest of her day was spent developing secretarial skills and it was rounded off with a trip to the ‘big’ post office in Boscombe to despatch the outgoing mail. Shirley remained at the solicitors until 1953 a wonderful snapshot of working life back in the 1950s .