Saddleworth Voices: Joan Frost

Over the past four years, Saddleworth Voices have recorded almost 70 interviews to preserve fond memories and anecdotes of all things local.

With the support of Saddleworth Parish Council, Delph Community Association, Delph library, Saddleworth Museum, and the North West Sound Archive in Clitheroe, the team of volunteers has created an oral record of our times, with the added advantage of capturing accent and dialect.

Here, Martin Plant looks at the life of Joan Frost.

Joan Frost, with her husband John, runs the Millyard Gallery in Uppermill.

Joan was born in Oldham in 1930. She won a scholarship to Hulme Grammar but left before the sixth form to work in the laboratory at Fletcher’s mill to support the family, as both her parents were ill.

Joan began to learn to play the piano at seven years old, passed her music exams, and has played the organ at the Salem Moravian Church in Oldham since the age of 19.

Married at the age of twenty to Colin, they bought a house in Greenfield, where she has lived ever since. Joan worked only part time in a chemistry laboratory, so she could look after her ailing mother-in-law, and then her own children, Jennifer, Martin, and Rebecca.

In 1966, Joan got a laboratory steward’s position at Saddleworth School. She was “surprised and delighted” but that very night after her interview Colin collapsed and died of a heart attack. Joan faced an uncertain future with no close family at hand.

In 1971, Joan, now married to John, was given day release from Saddleworth School to study Biological Sciences at Salford College. After five years, she graduated, and with a leap in the dark, gave up her job to train as a Craft, Design, and Technology teacher at De La Salle College.

Following this, she gained a teaching post at… Saddleworth School! She loved working with different materials and teaching by experience. Later, Joan became head of department and retired as head of faculty.

Engineer John, on being made redundant, took over a picture framing business in Alexandra Mill craft centre, where they began to exhibit pictures too. In 2002, they found the current premises in The Square in Uppermill which, with three floors, was more costly and a bigger risk.

They have worked hard to build the business into the success it is today, helped by their daughter, Rebecca.

“Running a gallery looks calm and relaxing but a lot goes on behind the scenes!” said Joan.

They normally have two promoted exhibitions a year and have over 400 people on the mailing list. Applications to exhibit come from artists all over the country.

Joan added: “To give the customer confidence, background is important. We like to meet the artists and see their actual work.

“Also, good framing for customers’ own pictures is important. “Things that are meaningful are enhanced by it. The job is so interesting because everything we do is a one-off.”