Gwen left school at 14 (1936), then she worked on a farm and as a cleaner. During the war she worked in Morris Motors – every factory had to employ one disabled worker per 100 able. She had a weak arm. It was good money (c. 1940) – pocket money from it. The work on the car and aeroplane radiators was heavy. Since a labourer had to help her she was paid less. There was a fuss when the Union started – she paid a groat but anonymously. She remembers the girls buying goods from catalogues. She refused to move to harder work – by showing her disabled card. Bruising from handling the radiator blocks. It was a noisy factory which has affected her hearing. Lots of joking and singing. She went on holiday with the girls, fun at Xmas. During the war, stars from the entertainment world visited. She got married (1953) – received a clock as a present. She left c.1981.
Patricia left school at 15 (1956), and worked in shops, then married and had children before starting in British Leyland (1968). She had 14/6 for making 100 silencers a day. It was dangerous work – her gun exploded and she fainted. She also welded seats. Her parents helped with child-care. Then she was sent to the Dafen factory to make car radiators. She injured her back and had to leave. Her fellow workers didn’t do their share of the work. Wearing gloves and paying for them. The company gave them aprons and spats for their feet. It was very noisy – some had compensation for this. The salary went up but she had to make 480 silencers a day. Some poor supervisors. When they had reached their target they went to the cloakroom – fortune telling, parties, hair-dressing. Discount (c.£2000) for a new car. Unionism had gone overboard – too many strikes. You could buy anything in the factory – they had sidelines. The bad language there was an education. Nurse and Pat had a metal rod in her breast. Unfair distribution of work. Excellent social nights in the club. She left in 1984. She feels pride that she produced work of a high standard there.
VSW003 Glenda & Annie Lewis, Morris Motors (Leyland), Llanelli;John Patterson tablecloth factory (aka John Pattinson and Fairweather works), Ponthenri
Glenda and Annie left school when they were 14/15. Glenda worked on printing tablecloths in John Patterson’s (c.1953-) and Annie on cutting the material. In Morris Motors Glenda made car radiators for 35 years. The John Patterson factory closed and Annie worked in the battery factory in Pont-henri for some months. She worked in Morris Motors for 32 years. They describe playing tricks there. Glenda was given a special table to work on because she was left-handed. Annie tried for a job with the men on the presses but other workers complained. Xmas parties in the factory. Both had watches for long service. They talk about the gloves, smoking and the smell of cigarettes. In Morris Motors they sold babies’ clothes that they made. Problems with targets – the material was poor. The award ceremony for long service. Glenda left at 58 – a bad back and Annie at 56.
The speaker left school at 15 in 1959 and after working for poor wages in a shop, she started working in Morris Motors in 1962 ‘the happiest years of my life’. She says the people said ‘factory girls, common’ but there were no fights or bad language. More sociable hours in the factory. She was offered to go to Oxford to learn to train new workers, but she was pregnant. Given her notice to finish at 6½ months (1969). Members of her family working there too. She returned (1970-4) as supervisor on evenings. She worked in the Co-op afterwards. In Morris Motors she liked the steady job, the holidays, the happy atmosphere. The workers in Oxford got higher wages for the same work. Conditions: rubber gloves; a surgery and nurse; accidents; the cold; singing to Workers’ Choice; her husband’s disapproval. British Leyland stopped the bonuses – now targets per hour. Fun on Xmas Eve. She felt valued in the factory because she and her twin sister (VSW006) were good workers.
The speaker left school in 1959 at 15 and started work at the factory in 1960. Her mother got her the job. She worked on the radiators. Piece-work. They didn’t stop to talk. Target - a score in an hour. Mainly women doing the radiators – men wouldn’t do it. Only boys were accepted as apprentices. Women left when they were 6½ months pregnant. Jobs were not kept open - she left in 1971. She went back to work after the children were born – four hours in the evening. Women got the full-rate at eighteen and men at twenty one. Men’s wages always larger than the women’s. Perks- discount off a car – a Mini perhaps. Unionism. Conditions: wearing rubber gloves because of with acid; accidents – one boy lost a finger; cold; Worker’s Choice over the radio. She mentions working in the ice-cream factory in Pembrey where the conveyor belt made her faint. The Morris Motors Club – Xmas parties for the children.
Sylvia left grammar school with O Levels when she was 17. She intended becoming a nurse, but married instead. She worked in shops and at the Opticals, Cydweli but after her son was born she started in John Stanton’s as a top sewing machinist in 1967 (until c. 1969) – quite a posh factory. They made clothes for M&S, Targets, time and motion and bonuses. Injuries with the sewing needles. There wasn’t a union and when they tried to unskill her job she moved to the Salter’s Factory (1969-78) -as a calibrator, making scales. She worked for the money but the company was good too. She moved to inspection in the warehouse. They bought seconds in both factories and there was some pilfering. Salter’s closed in 1978.
Mair was a farmer's daughter, one of seven children, though the farm was sold after his death. Some of her sisters worked in a sewing factory. She left school at 16 to look for work, as coming from a large family it was necessary. She had wanted to be a nurse but she would have had to wait until she reached 19. She learned to type in the British School while looking for a job, and eventually got one in the milk factory, although she tried for work in the sewing factory too. This was in 1949 and she learned how to test the milk on the job. The relationship between the workers was good. £1 12 and 6 was her first wage and she gave most of it to her mother. She lived in Bodffordd and went to work on the bus. In the beginning she worked 9-5 but it didn't seem like a long day. Later on she did nightshifts too and bought a bike to travel to work then. There wasn't a canteen there just a little cwtsh where they used to hang their coats. There wasn't even a kettle and they used to boil water for tea in the lab. Mair worked there for 17 years until she lost her job in 1966 during a milk shortage, being a married woman with a husband to support her. It was supposed to be first in last out, she said, but not in her case. She was out of work for a while and it was awful, she said, signing on the dole, until she got another job.
Rosie worked at the Llangefni creamery straight from school, in 1957. She got the job after hearing at school that there were jobs going in the milk factory, she thinks, in the morning assembly. She had gone for a job in a bank but preferred the factory job because she wanted to be connected to agriculture, coming from a farming background. The Milk Marketing Board owned the factory. Se felt nervous at first, being with others after being on her own. She had a period of training and three months probabation, and she enjoyed working there as it was a very pleasant place to work. Some of the older girls had been there since the beginning and new girls often got the jobs they didn't want to do. But everyone was helpful and friendly. The girls who tested the milk had to have a colour blindness eye test, because they used litmus paper that changed to different shades of blue. So the girls had to have good eyesight. At one time, Cadbury's owned it and the factory made chocolate and biscuits as well as producing milk for domestic use and schools. She met her husbsand there. She left the factory in 1967 because she wanted to earn more money and got a good job with the County Council.
VN019 Nancy Denton, B.S.Bacon toy factory, Llanrwst
Nancy went down to the toy factory on leaving school to ask for a job, as you were expected to work. She didn't really like it “but it was a job and you had to take it. Some parts of it I liked and some I didn't.” She did like “doing my easels, yes, I used to like doing that.” But she says she got bored with the routine, the same thing all the time. She mainly did the easels and blackboards, knocking the nails in and sanding down the wood, and also using staple guns, which used to 'jump.' The toys were good quality and a well-known brand, Bacon's they knew it as, but it might have been Valley Toys. There were no perks, if there was a reject they couldn't take it “no way, could you heck, no.” There was no bonus at Christmas “we didn't even know what that was.” The factory was very basic but she enjoyed the camaraderie there. She left the factory at 17 and got married shortly after. She did return to work afterwards but never did factory work again.
VN024 Margaret Jones, B.S.Bacon toy factory, Llanrwst
Margaret's first job was in the kitchen in the school canteen, washing up and helping with the dinners, for which she thinks she earned the equivalent of 50p. She was there for about two years. She went to the toy factory in 1948 after going down to the factory in person to ask for job. She must have had an interview but can't remember. She was happy to have a job because you had to have a job in those days, she said. She thinks she worked from 8am to 5pm, but didn't have to work weekends. They had breaks but there was no canteen. The workers went to MacLean's Cafe in a street nearby where they bought their teas and coffees and something to eat. She worked in the toy factory for ten years between 1948-1958. She says it was a friendly place to work and she built the dolls houses the whole time she was there. There was no messing about, you had to concentrate on the job, she said. The owner, Mr Bacon, was always there, in and out of the office. In the end, she left for a job that offered better wages.
