'It was all fields!' Telford hairdresser reflects on changes after calling time on 40-year salon career

Grace Joseph, who owns Hair Junction in Leegomery and has worked as a hairdresser in the area since the early 1980s, says it's the right time to hand the business over after nearly 50 years in the trade.

Mrs Joseph, who moved to Telford in 1981, said the town was almost unrecognisable from the place she arrived in as a wide-eyed 22-year-old.

Grace had sold a salon business in her home city Cardiff to come to Shropshire with footballer husband Antone, who had signed for Telford United from Weymouth during the summer, and said the change of pace from the bright lights of the Welsh capital was stark.

"Telford was extremely quiet in those days, we didn't even have a town centre then!

"It was all fields. They built the Spar just across the road, there was a fish shop and a general store and that was about it. It's very different now, we've had three lovely children living here in Telford and the community has grown up around us."

Having started her career in Shropshire as a mobile hairdresser, Grace moved into a rented unit in the Spar shop in Leegomery several years later. The business has since gone from strength to strength despite being hit by a devastating fire which saw the area's district shopping centre burned to the ground.

A massive blaze in July 2005 gutted the Spar store and post office, leaving the Thomas Telford pub, the salon and next-door chip shop severely damaged.

"They'd just done the Spar up and there was an electrical fault overnight - we had a phone call in the early hours to say the Spar's on fire and I thought 'oh no'.

"The firemen were still on site at 9am the next morning and there was no chance we were getting back in, so we had to go and work elsewhere for six months."

The business recovered and moved back into the newly built Leegomery local centre when work was completed the following year.

Now, after nearly half a century working in the industry, Grace says she's looking forward to some free time for travelling with her husband - but says she'll miss the day-to-day interactions with her loyal customers most of all.

"It's personal, we've seen customers grow up with us and they bring their children and their grandchildren. It's a real family affair, you see the neighbourhood grow up around you," she said.

"People come in here and share all sorts of things really - people open up and share all sorts of things and you have some remarkable conversations in the shop.

"People have been coming in with flowers and chocolates all month. You build up incredible relationships with customers. I put so much into the business and I think I'll miss it but I've never really been away from it so I'm not sure how it'll be!

"I just want to thank our customers for all their years of support and just for being lovely customers. We've always tried hard to keep our prices down, we know the area we work in and we try to do right by our customers too. I think people understand that and that's why we've always had such great support from the community." 

The business is set to carry on and will be taken over by new owners after this Saturday (May 31).