SHE may be 90 years old but market trader Joan Ward can still swing a sack of potatoes with the best of them.
Joan still works six-days-a-week running her fruit and veg stall, Fred Ward’s, in Wath’s Value for Money Market.
As the eldest of nine siblings, Joan grew up around retail, she was born in her grandmother’s fish and chip shop and from the age of ten she helped deliver fruit and veg from her father’s horse and cart.
After that she married greengrocer, Fred Ward, and together they set up a market stall in 1952, which Joan still runs today.
Since then the stall has traded in Mexborough and Barnsley markets before settling in Wath market in 1983 where the stall has been ever since.
Joan, of Daleswood Avenue, Barnsley, said: “I’ve always been in a shop. My grandma had a fish and chip shop and I used to go there and stand on a stool and prepare the potatoes.
“And then in 1939 I used to go out with my dad on his horse and cart delivering the fruit and veg from his greengrocers at Carlton,” she said.
“I used to go and knock on the door and see if anyone wanted anything and I would also carry the buckets of potatoes.”
Joan runs the stall single-handedly and works 50 hours a week in the market.
She wakes up at 6.30am and begins her day at the market at 8am where she spends her day until 4pm.
But she says it is something she enjoys doing.
“I still drive the van and collect deliveries,” she said.
“I haven’t got a walking stick or a Zimmer frame and I still lift sacks of potatoes, just as I’ve always done.”
Joan ran the stall for 47 years with her husband, before he retired due to ill-health.
Fred was one of four brothers who all had market stalls across the borough.
“Fred came from a long line of greengrocers, his family had a fruit and veg shop in Rawmarsh in the late 1890s and they moved to Mexborough and Wath and Hoyland.
They’ve done it all really.
“There were four brothers and they all had separate stalls. It was quite a large family business.”
Despite growing up in and around her family’s businesses, Joan never thought she would be running a market stall.
“When I met Fred, I was going to join the police force but I decided to work with Fred on his stall instead.
“We met at a dance in Blackpool. I used to work in Timpsons shoe shop in Barnsley and I would walk past his fruit stall every Wednesday and Friday and we had a chat.
“Eventually we got married and started up business together.”
Fred died in 2006 and Joan has continued to run the stall ever since.
“I’m not planning on giving up the stall any time soon,” said Joan. “As long I still feel fit and capable I shall stay here.
“It’s great, I get to meet people every day and the children I served all those years ago now bring their children to the stall which is lovely.”
The market has also become home to both Joan’s sister and daughter. Her sister, Pat, 79, runs Aunty Pat’s cafe and her daughter, Kate, 60, runs the Wishful Thinking card shop.
“It makes me proud that I’ve managed to keep going. I just take it as normal, its something I like doing,” said Joan.
“I’ve become a fixture in the market and I love running the stall, after all, age is just a number.”
