Esther Hayes was a Coronation Street resident in the 1960s. She was a spinster who lived at No.5, and frequently came to the aid of the neighbours when they had a problem. She moved to Glasgow in 1963.
Biography
Esther Hayes was born in Weatherfield on 10th May 1924, daughter of Sid and Alice Hayes.
After older sister Ada went to Blackpool to help care for children evacuated due to Britain entering the Second World War, Esther struggled to take care of the family herself, especially after father Sid was killed in an air raid in 1940. Her mother first became dependent on tranquilizers, and then took to her bed, with Esther waiting on her. Esther was intimidated by her brother Tom and banished him from the home after he attempted to suffocate their mother in her sleep.
In 1942 Esther met a soldier named John Brown, and they planned to marry. She spent months gathering materials for the perfect wedding dress, but the day before the wedding, John's father told her his plane had been shot down. Esther could not bear to let her family see her grieving, and was comforted by Ena Sharples. A few months later, Esther gave her dress to Sally Todd, who could not afford one. Esther and Ada attended the reception at the Rovers; the first time either had stepped into the public house, as their father had encouraged them not to drink.
Although she held a steady job at the Town Hall, Esther was now tied to her bed-ridden mother and passed up opportunities for better work to care for her. When Alice died in 1952, she had not been out of bed for seven years. Esther continued to live alone but regularly lent a helping hand to the neigbours and some of the younger residents of the Street, especially Christine Hardman and Kenneth Barlow, went to her for advice.
In 1961, Esther's conman brother Tom got out of prison and showed up at Esther's door. Esther was obligated to take him in but she quickly saw that he hadn't changed his ways and couldn't cope with him. Fortunately he wasn't around for long.
Esther moved to a luxury flat at Moor Lane, not a great distance away from Coronation Street, in 1962, and moved to Glasgow in 1963 but was a regular fixture at weddings and funerals for a few years, including Ken Barlow and Valerie Tatlock's wedding, Val's funeral and Ernie Bishop and Emily Nugent's wedding in 1972.
Background information
- One of the original Coronation Street characters, Esther was written out in 1961 because of the Equity actors' strike. Her absence during the strike was unexplained in the narrative and she was written to be living in the street the entire period. She was mentioned at Christmas 1961 as cooking dinner for the Barlows and was mentioned in February 1962, as Frank stated in an episode that Ken was around at Esther's.
Quotes
"Oh you've never got that bookcase open again." (First line)
"Well, she left it a bit late, but not too late eh Mrs Sharples?" (Final line, about Emily Nugent getting married)
See also
External links
| Original characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ken Barlow | Frank Barlow | Ida Barlow | David Barlow | Jack Walker | Annie Walker | Elsie Tanner | Dennis Tanner | Linda Cheveski | Ivan Cheveski | Harry Hewitt | Lucille Hewitt | Concepta Riley | Ena Sharples | Minnie Caldwell | Martha Longhurst | Albert Tatlock | Christine Hardman | Florrie Lindley | Esther Hayes | Leonard Swindley |