Ada Rose Woodhurst

Brief biography

Ada Rose Woodhurst was born on April 6th 1914 to parents Percy Woodhurst and his wife Lucy Florence (nee) Hooper [Birth Index: W. Derby 8b 1253, 1914 (June)].

The National Register for England and Wales 1939 finds her living with her parents at 1, Recreation Road in Colchester and occupied as a ladies' hairdresser.

A descendant has kindly supplied the following synopsis of her life.

Ada Rose Woodhurst was born in West Kirby, a district of Liverpool, on 6th April 1914, but moved to Colchester as a small child. She stayed in Colchester for the remainder of her long life and lived in the family home for over 80 years.

Ada was engaged to be married when she was 18, but her fiance died in 1934, and after his death Ada remained single for the rest of her life.

Ada worked as a hairdresser and is widely credited as being Colchester's first mobile hairdresser, having a specially adapted bicycle to carry all her equipment. She cycled far and wide throughout the war to visit her customers and was not deterred by the blackout! She also worked as a Sunday School teacher for many years.

She adopted Helen in 1946 and continued to work hard to give Helen a happy childhood. Sadly, Helen died in 1996, aged 50. Ada continued to live alone, supported by her family and many friends until she was 93.

Her final years were spent at Woodlands Residential Home for Ladies in Colchester, where she made new friends and was a huge favourite with the staff.

Death of Colchester's First Mobile Hairdresser
Ada Woodhurst, one of Colchester's oldest residents and the town's first mobile hairdresser has died aged 98. Miss Woodhurst lived in Recreation Road, Colchester, for nearly 80 years and was a very well known and much loved resident in the New Town area. A hairdresser by profession, Miss Woodhurst caused quite a stir in the early 1930s when she had a bicycle specially adapted to carry all her hairdressing equipment so she could visit elderly and house bound customers. Undeterred by understandable family concerns, she rapidly added to her list of customers in the town, and then to everyone's surprise began to cycle out to neighbouring villages as well. She had customers as far north as Stoke by Nayland, and to the south she visited the villages of Tolleshunt D'Arcy and Tollesbury. She refused to restrict her work during war time, and from 1939 to 1945 continued to cycle far and wide, often during the blackout in order that her customers were never disappointed. Miss Woodhurst was a lifelong member of Wimpole Road Methodist Church, and after her fiance, a Colchester sailing barge captain, died in 1934, she increased her church activities and is still remembered as a lively and committed Sunday school teacher. Miss Woodhurst never married, but in 1946 adopted Helen, who was named after the Lady Helen, her late fiance's sailing barge. Sadly, her adopted daughter died in 1996, but Miss Woodhurst continued to live at her house in Recreation Road until, aged 92, she moved to Woodlands Residential Care Home in Colchester. She died peacefully at Woodlands on 11th August 2012.