Beryl went to Mona Products, which made clothes for Marks and Spencers, straight from school in 1958. She was sewing collars and sleeves onto T shirts and putting elastic in knickers and sewing gussets. There wasn't a basic wage and she said you had to work your socks off to make your wage up, the wages were very bad. There were no health and safety regulations and a small canteen. There was only a few men there - two packing, two mechanics and the manager. There was music on the factory floor, and the boys would choose what station they'd listen to - like Workers' Playtime and the news. After two years, she moved to Ferranti, which made electronic meters. This was much bigger than Mona Products and she was working on the laminations and making tops for sports cars and leather covers. She was much happier in Ferranti's, lot more fun, and a better wage plus bonuses. Beryl was there until 1968, when she went to Hotpoint for a few months. She didn't like Hotpoint and returned to Ferranti, getting married around this time and stopping work when she had children.
Keith was a roofer before he went to Hotpoint. He decided to go into a factory because he wasn't happy with the inequality in bonuses in the roofing trade. He wasn't sure if he would settle being in a factory after working outdoors but he did, and said he had to because he had four children to support. He worked on various different lines and said the training differed from one to another, with some lines just showing him what to do once and then letting him get on with it. He enjoyed Hotpoint, earning good money, especially for nights. He retired just short of 65.
Margaret began work in Hotpoint at the age of 39, although she'd already been working and had a family. Her husband Keith had started there the previous year. She had a week's training where she was one of only two females, the rest being male trainees, and she was the only one doing the tasks properly, whereas the men were cutting corners. She really liked the factory and the cameraderie and the wages were very high, especially for night shifts which she, and her husband, did for a long period of time, as her mother was able to look after the children. There was a real family atmosphere at Hotpoint even though it was a huge place and they had a lot of fun. She was a team leader on the wiring board section and a union rep for many years. She didn't want to move to Hotpoint Kinmel when the factory closed in 1992 but had no choice. She said the new factory was very different from the one in Llandudno and that they never really fitted in. Margaret retired in 1998.
Kathy worked in the personnel dept. at Hotpoint from its beginnings in 1947 and, apart from a 15 year break when she looked after her family or worked on ships, including the Queen Elizabeth, she stayed until her voluntary redundancy in 1991, at the age of 62. She enjoyed working in the factory, knew everyone, and describes it as almost a family. She says it was a 'tremendous' place to work, although she admits she didn't have the monotony of the assembly line. In her job, there was something different every day and it was exciting. She never knew what she would be faced with next as people used to come to her with all sorts of problems. She did a variety of tasks under the role of personnel officer, including some time on the assembly line to try and understand how the workers could do such a repetive job day in day out.
Yvonne worked in Llanrwst toy factory on leaving school at 15, where she painted the wooden toys. She was one of the youngest and worked with two older women she called Aunty Lena and Aunty Martha. She liked the toys, which were well made out of wood, dolls houses and garages and farms, but could never afford to buy them. She enjoyed working there but wanted to earn more money, so she got a job at Dolgarrog Aluminium as an inspector. They made aluminium for lots of things from saucepans to corrugated roofs, and her job was checking for marks on the aluminium before it went to the packing dept. It was a very big factory, over a thousand workers, and she used to get the bus there from Llanrwst. She met her husband there and left the factory when her son was born two years after they married. She did cleaning jobs afterwards but never factory work again.
When she was 14 Averill went to a commercial school but because her mother wasn’t supportive she decided to leave and work in Lightning Zip Fasteners as an office clerk, 1954 -. She could attend a technical college every week. It was an excellent, clean factory and no-one wanted to leave. She describes how the young lads were teased, and that some of the women were fit and used strong language. She notes the social club and the games’ facilities. She gave her mother her pay packet and she had nothing. The company gave shares to its workers. She left in 1967 to have a baby. She mentions some sexual harassment and pilfering of zips.
Beryl left school at 14, and worked in the Felin-foel brewery, 1941-8, before getting married. Her husband didn’t like women working in factories. Then she lost her husband and she had to go to work in INA Bearings to maintain the family. She was on inspection there. She talks about the factory nurse, the noise of the machines, clocking in, the children’s Christmas parties, getting a clock for long service and trips. She left the factory in 1982.
VSW037 Marina McGowan, ITT Television Factory, Milford Haven
Marina left school at 15 (1949) and was a chambermaid emptying chamber pots (2 years) before moving to the Dock where she braided fishermen’s nets for the trawlers. After getting married and having the children she went to the large ITT factory in Thornton Park (1970s). They made televisions. Listening to the radio and having a singsong sometimes. Provided with a coat. Accidents such as cutting their fingers. Her husband was at sea so she couldn’t socialise in the evenings with the other girls. She left when she became pregnant again.
VN008 Mary Evans, James Kaylor Compacts, Caernarfon
Mary began in Kaylors when she was sixteen and she liked the work and the company. Her work was putting the polish on the compacts after they'd been dipped in acid, and putting the gems in them. Also she was making the tube that pushes the lipstick up. They could have rejects for free. She said factory work was an eye opener: “I was in my element there. Everyone was so close, there were 'rough and ready' girls but I liked them, I really liked then. I could listen to their stories, things I never got to hear at home, Good Lord!” The money was bad however - two pound something - and she left to go to Waterworths where the money was better. She met her husband in Waterworths left in 1961 to have a child but returned the following year. She left factory work in 1962 for office work to earn more money.
VN007 Dafydd Llewelyn, James Kaylor Compacts, Caernarfon;Bernard Wardell, Caernarfon
Dafydd started as an apprentice tool setter in Kaylor Compacts on leaving school at the age of fifteen. He wanted to be a driver and only worked there a year before getting a job on the Co-op van. His main job was going round and changing the tools on the presses, and pushing the compacts into a tunnel where they were heated, and maintenance work, although he was suppose to be a tool-setter. He didn't like the job because of the way the foremen, two in particular, treated people, but he said his co-workers were great. When he walked down between the machines, the girls would pull his leg and call out things like “Do you want a thrill?” and he was only 15! The women looked after him. When he went to the canteen, there was a nice woman there who'd let him pay the next day if he didn't have enough on him. They didn't serve hot food, just snacks. He did work in another factory, Bernard Wardell, after leaving the compact factory but mainly did driving work thereafter.
