[speaker001:] time when I first came to.
[speaker002:] And how old were you then?
[speaker003:] I should say about six or seven.
[speaker002:] What year would that be?...
[speaker003:] Tt Let's see, I'm sixty one now, so sixty one that's er twenty one isn't it?
[speaker002:] Twenty one. Yeah.
[speaker003:] Twenty one ye Nineteen twenty one when I first came to. But it had been just [phone rings] just a wee little village then. [cough] We had we had the two schools, the School and the what we call the Boys School, that was the other one on on the green and it the girl's school, near this school, you started there as an infant between five and seven. And then the girls stayed on till they were fourteen. But when the boys became seven they they went on to this school on the green. Now the village green in those days was all ashes, completely all ashes. N not as it is today, beautiful green grass and we used to play er cricket, football, marbles er pitch card, ring tor, er duckie stone, and all that of course the village in those days was divided into two parts and if you lived over 's Hill you was a downtowner. And if you lived this end of the village you was an uptowner, see? And we used to arrange football teams, cricket teams, during the before you went into school, playtime and very often when you came out of school. But if you went over the hill, after school time, then you were in for a fairly rough time the other end, you were challenged and all sorts of things. And of course there were no houses down where the village ha past the village hall in those days. I think Row was about the last row in and of course you'd got all the fields, Gardens and what have you. And there was nothing till you got to the Grange, absolutely nothing. And there was just, well Road, other than er the Estate was pretty well the same as it is today, very little improved. And the w the road might have been widened but the houses are the same and er the er of course with a lot of The old factories have been pulled down, Mills was pulled down, that was a v very prosperous f factory at one time, when I was a boy, but er I'm afraid that went according to you know [LAUGHTER] the lack of trade. It was er The village centre is about the same as it was when I was a boy, more busier of course, all the private houses that were on the front, you know, Street? That's all been altered,i [LAUGHTER] they've all been made into shops [] and spoilt the you know, the and there used to be old 's, the shoe shop and Mr. 's watch shop and Mrs 's pastry shop. Mr, the bar local barber, who's son lives next door, for years, he used to start at nine o'clock in the morning and finish at nine o'clock at night. Still cutting hair at nine o'clock at night and shaving people, penny and tuppence a time. Old Mr, the old er, our only, as I could remember, centurian, died when he was a hundred and two. He was going to have his hair cut w in every and a shave Mr er 's barber shop right up until practically the morning he died. And he did his own gardening, right up, when he was a hundred, he was fit as a fiddle when he was a hundred, doing his own gardening.
[speaker002:] Where about did your family live? The first house they lived in
[speaker003:] [cough]
[speaker002:] ?
[speaker003:] The first house that I can remember was on Road. That's just by where your friend lives. lived in that house there and it was three shillings a week, I think it was, two up and two down. One biggish living room and a little back kitchen with no water and no sanitation and if you wanted to dispose of your water you'd have to take it out on the roadside and chuck it down the main drain. And you used to have to fetch your water from the pump's head, just round the corner, outside toilets, we used to have to go about fifty yards to use the toilet. And then you'd share it with somebody else on the same row.... Yeah. And it was [LAUGHTER] a fight for the f towards the end of the week it was a fight to [] sort of say, Well, [LAUGHTER] Shan't be able to move it, [LAUGHTER] use it [] until t the man comes. But although in that house there was eight of us
[speaker002:] That was your?
[speaker003:] Mum and Dad and six kids, there was four in one bedroom, me sister, me and her my Me two sisters in the slept in in a double bed in me Mam's bedroom and we four lads slept in the back bedroom w w whi which was just just big enough to get a double bed in, as you can see, and there was two that slept at the top, and two slept at the bottom. And you can guess what that was like with four four of us in bed, [shouting] Hey [cough] [LAUGHTER] Wi move your feet. [] And and of course y you didn't have extra blankets in those days, you had to fetch your Dad's topcoat up and put on if you're cold. That's sort of business.
[speaker002:] What did your Dad do for a living?
[speaker003:] Well Dad, he worked... in the ammu in the munitions at Coventry, down Lane for the Humber people, during the war. That's how he g He's native is here, he's a native of, there was a very big sam family of them, about seventeen brothers. And they always formed the Village Church Choir,, see? [cough] But he was tt er a twist hand in the hosiery trade, making... socks, and he worked in the last mobile, not mobile, er mechanical stocking manufacturers, owned by my uncle, Mr Frank, in Street and th what we used to called Street. It was never known as Street in those days, it was called the Street. And they had a big tt gas engine there with a great big flywheel and you can see these machines today, they didn't make them round, they used to make them flat. See? And i the bobbins an and that used to run across like that, the shuttle always used to run across like that
[speaker002:] From side to side?
[speaker003:] Aye. And er great big pulleys with three inch leather belts, if they'd have done it in, er do it in these days and the factory inspector would have cut him to pieces. And I can see the o old father when he used to have s want to make the mo the machine immobile, while he did something particular to it, so like you switching the electricity off, well,h he used to have to take the belts off. He used to get this brush handle and shove it in between the belts, like that, and [cough] twist it off like that. Then when he wanted it to go again he used to get the th the belt, the leather belt, and er sort of hook it on to the lower end of the cast iron pulley and follow it round until it went on. [LAUGHTER]. [LAUGHTER] And that's how they used to start the o [LAUGHTER] [] and the old gas engine it used to pop pop pop, pop pop pop, pop pop pop pop. [LAUGHTER]. [LAUGHTER] A y That was the last one [] of the mechanized o Well, it was the only mo er mechanized stocking stockinger's shop in the village. The rest was all hand operated, which was, was infested by stockinger's shops in those days.
[speaker002:] That was the framework?
[speaker003:] The framework
[speaker002:] knitters? Yeah.
[speaker003:] And you can You can see the n the buildings And there are one or two of them pulled down now. I don't remember all I The last man I can remember working one was Mr, Joe, and he was down he The last one I can remember, as I say, was being operated in in the yard just down Street. Opposite to Mr where Mr Fred used to live, at the back of his house. That was the last one I can remember being worked there, but I do remember Frank, where me Dad worked. Then of course, me Dad, when that closed down, it was like everything else, it's as bad as it is today, for jobs. They couldn't get work and my poor old Dad went miles round these outside villages, on a a old lady's push-bike, trying to find work. And the work they'd go for They were building their house, they'd v volunteer to take the footings out, or dig trenches to, or find out which farmer would have the threshing engine to do the, you know, to help them with the threshing, which was arduous work in those days. Fetching coal and water for this [LAUGHTER] poor old steam engine [], taking the chaff away, which was a filthy, horrible job. [cough]. Carrying sacks of beans and s oats, up into the storage block in sixteen stone bags and twelve stone bags. And how they used to They used to put them on like a You know what these two-wheeled barrows like they put the sacks on, don't you? Well, it was a similar thing to that, only bigger. tt They'd got two handles which was b made it mobile, two wheels, and used it Have four sacks at the end of this threshing engine, hanging on little hooks, and and a bloke there seeing that it got filled alright and it when it was full, they used to run this thing underneath a sack, crank it up by hand, like that, till they got it to the required height, then nestle it on their shoulders, you see there was a There's a there's an art in carrying c In carrying coal and there's an art in carrying corn and there's an art in carrying beef. There's an art in carrying everything, which makes it easy, if you know how. But if you don't know how, it'll kill you. Same as all farm work, see, farm work They don't know as they're born these days, these youngsters don't, when they come to talking about farming. used to have to w run the old b back the old horse and cart into the co crew yard which had been standing all year with about umpteen beasts on it, trampling it down, more straw, trample it down, more straw, trample it down. Then in back end they used to empty this crew yard and you used to have to handle all that with forks, muck forks, they used to call them, and that was big biggest fork and by God, they used to pull your heart out. You can guess what it was like, straw and everything, being trampled down all winter, sodden with with water and everything. And then when that was done you used to have to take it to the field, [LAUGHTER] and put it in we we used to put it in big heaps and then come back, fill it up, and then go out and spread it. And
[speaker002:] So
[speaker003:] the o the old farmer used to go along with his one furrow plough, and a pair of good horses, and it was no mean feat. I mean it th th they were called farm labourers in those days, but they weren't labourers, they were clever men, clever men, make no mistake about that. I mean today, you've got to be an educated man to know how to even, they've got er tractors and everything, but in those days you'd got to set your plough furrow out so as you you could run your plough down your first one, and then as you as you ploughed your first furrow out you'd got to plough your next one into it. Ten inch furrow. And keep old Dobbin in his in his furrow. One in the furrow and one on the stubble, see? And you used to do that at a ten inch blade all day, up and down that field. Day in and day out, today they can Same with old mowing machines, they used to go out To open a field up in those days, they used to have to go round with a scythe. Go right round a f these the field and cut your first swathe out and tie it up with a a load of the straw that you'd cut and bind it up, bundle it up and shove that in the hedge bottom. Then the old old binder used to come in with two two year old stalwarts, horses, and he used to go round this field and it used to take him days. And then after the first seven or eight s cuttings, then they used to come along stooking. You used to get two shears underneath your arm like that, and they used to drop them down like that, across your knees and top them like that, see? And you used to put eight to a stook, that was so it would dry out, you see? And er and when that was been in the field whatever days, depending on the weather, if you'd got a good dry summer well you'd perhaps take it in in after a week, you see? And then we used to and they used to come along with the old cart and start leading. And when they'd finished milking at, they'd usually start milking about half past four in the morning, some of them used to go delivering milk and then they used to go leading. What we call leading, that was picking your corn up. And they'd knock off for a bit of dinner, come back, and do the second milking. Wash your cans up erm and er and then they'd go and finish off in the corn fields. And I used to go down you used to see all the mams and kids going down the moors here, taking their dad's tea, down in the fields, so they could have a bit of something and then finish as got dark. And then they'd wind their way home with the old port and everything. And hay harvesting was a different kettle of fish altogether. Admitting you went in the fields, but you didn't open the field up in th erm with a hay harvesting, you used to go in with your cutter, straight away. Take, you didn't bother about the headlands, you'd do your headlands after you'd mown all your and then of course then that was left to dry, after two or three days, depending on the weather again. You used to go in the fields and turn it and when it had been turned they used to start leading. And i if the man in the field had got a grudge against a bloke who was stacking i or taking off in the stack yard he could make life hell. Cos there's a way of putting hay on the cart and you used to have to start one lot in the corner, one lot in the other corner, another lot at the back, another lot at the back at the other side and then you'd fill in your centre. See? And when you'd got your centre filled in, you used to start again,, one in the corner, one the other corner, one between the eyes, one in the middle and back again. Now if you'd got grudge against the bloke who was taking it off in the shop, in the farmyard, after when you got back home, of course you had to come I mean they didn't stick it in the field, like they do now. You used to have to bring the stuff to the farmyard to store it, you see? And if the old boy in the field had got a grudge against the bloke taking it off he used to shove it anywhere so he'd have to pull it off, instead of following the the seam round, you see? By God it was hard, it was hard work in those days. And see the same with mangle tagging, dunnet tagging, sugar beet pulling. Sugar beeting in those days, you used to stick the old plough in, plough them up and then we had to go along knocking them, to knock all the soil off, then chop the tops off, put them in heaps, go along with the old horse and cart. Load them up and then [LAUGHTER] t take them to the heap [] and ready for off again to the market. did it, it was all road transported in them days. M sh you see that I was saying, to be a farm labourer in those days you'd got to be a clever man, you'd got to know how much wheat to shove to an acre, no waste, you see? You couldn't afford the waste. Even though it was cheap in those days the farm farmer couldn't afford to waste it. Oh no. And then of course your sugar beet went direct to Colwick and it used to go by horse and cart in those days. And er but your y mangles and your potatoes, they went in pits, in the field. And of course you your mangles was for your a and your turnips for your Winter fodder. [LAUGHTER] And that was another d another task. [] You used to have a special chopper for your mangles and it was like a big mincing machine, with a great big wheel on, and you used to fill it full of er mangles, or turnips and it used to come out like chips. And then you used to mix it up with bran and oats and cake and that sort of stuff, for the horses. An and then we used to have to and there was no no such a thing as bales in those days, duckie. No such a thing as bales of straw, it was loose hay stacked, and you used to cut it with a big hay knife. [bell ring] Oh, great big hefty thing it was, it was an art to cut hay, with these big knives. And then we used When it g we used to fetch it off then like, cut it and then fetch it off in sheaths, like h, you know, like a big slice of bread. And my God, again it was hard work, we used to put it in this hay chopper, pile it in and chop and it used to come out like chaff. And that was for your horses, you see? An and they had to be fed. The horse man used to have to go before anybody else, to feed the horses so that, and groom them, currycomb them, water them and do everything, before any of the farmers dare take them out on the fields. Yeah.
[speaker002:] So were these temporary jobs your father had on the farm?
[speaker003:] They'd do anything, my duck.
[speaker002:] Did you used to go and help on the farm as well?
[speaker003:] Oh aye, of course you do, you had to do, you used to go tater- picking, my duckie, for one and sixpence a day. And if you were lucky, and you got a good farmer, he'd let you take one o what we call roasters, home. So you your Mam could shove them in the oven and roast them for you, take your own bucket. You'd be, oh perhaps twenty or thirty of us, in these fields and you used to do so A length, what you call a length. You'd perhaps have three of you picking up er the potatoes and then another length, another wat another lot of kids, another three used to do another length. And then when the old spinney used to come up again, [cough] if you were lucky, he'd probably He had a probably a little wait before you'd finished the other, you see? Keglet pulling. Stone-picking. Oh, singling, mangles, turnips, anything like that. One and sixpence a day, but Mr was the best paid, was two bob a day. And we always u Everybody used to try and get to 's.
[speaker002:] This was while you were still at school?
[speaker003:] This was while we were still at scho Well, you used to have a week off of school, my darling, for tater-picking, only. When I was kids.
[speaker002:] Did you do any other jobs, part-time
[speaker003:] Paper
[speaker002:] jobs while you were still at school?
[speaker003:] Paper boy. Taking it out and all these what's name, half a crown a week. On Lane, walking it. Come rain, come shine. And you had to put it in the letter box, you daren't leave it in the in the. Milk round, with the old ladle and jug. And you'd be surprised what you had to put your milk in in those days. Anything. And we used to do that twice a day, my darling, not once a day, twice a day. And then come and then wash your own cans out, and you used to carry them all through all round the village. Then I got a bike, and I was alright then, I could put two milk churns on. But you couldn't fill th the milk churns then, you used to have the half pint and pint measures, hanging inside your milk. And it was milk, full of cream. When you've got up next morni And then we I can tell you another thing, and very few people know about it, especially I bet you don't know wha what they called beastlings, do you? Well in those days beastlings was a lux it wasn't a luxury because you could get it for nothing. They used The farmers used to give them to you. And it was milk, after they'd milked the cow first time, after she'd had a calf, well the first milking, they usually got blood in the milk, you see? But the second milking, and so forth on, perhaps the thir second or third milking they used to get milk, what they called beastlings and it was very often too much for the calves to take, so she got a full bag. So they had to draw it off, you see? And if anybody had got a cow and it calved, we used to go to him and say could we have the beastlings, please. Then your Mam used to make p pastry and put these beastlings in and make a beastling custard. [LAUGHTER]. And it was beautiful. You didn't need you didn't need eggs in that, so forth and fifth, in that stuff. Full of all the vitamins and everything. You used to And then you could also go to the local farmer's and take away a quart jug, for two penn'orth of skimmed milk. And that sort of thing.
[speaker002:] Did your Mum do any sort of work at all?
[speaker003:] Mum, she'd got to do, darling. Six kids, Dad on a few shillings a week, when he was out of work, Mam had to go out scrubbing, washing. My poor mother had got corns on across her her knuckles, right to the very day she died, from scrubbing for different people, and skivvying, up there. these skivvies, in, what we called skivvies in those days, at these big houses up round a about the village. Y you got about twelve and sixpence a w a year. And w half a day a w a week and had to be in by nine o'clock. My mother was was servant to, at the croft up there, about fifteen bob a week and she didn't know when she used to come home. Eight o'clock in the morning till eight nine o'clock at night. Cooking dinner, and if she got a what's-a-name, [cough] if they'd got parties on, she used to stop there had to stop there till two.
[speaker002:] What happened to you kids while she was out working?
[speaker003:] we had to look after ourselves. And if me Dad wasn't home at work,a out at work, he used to have to do it. My father, six kids on a Friday night, we used to put a bucket of water on the hot sink, on the old gas stove and my father used to bath us six kids in front of the fire. Friday night. And never once on a Sunday morning did that man fail to get up and cook our breakfast and polish our shoes, so that we'd go smart and good to Sunday School. Never once. Yeah. My poor old mother, and me sister finished at the same big house, servant there for them. Same Oh. And the mothers had to do it in those days, half a crown to do all the washing for this woman. And you used to get up and light the copper fire, fill this old copper, which held about ten gallons, and then put plenty of stack o slack on it. And it was there was no what's-a-name in there. I can remember me first Mother's, what she called, automatic washer. By God, I can remember that as if it was yesterday. And it was a little square thing, about two foot square, with a er... and about eight inches deep, tt and you used to put the clothes in, with warm water and your your powder, close the top and you used to have a handle, and Like that there, and you used to be backwards and forwards, like that, [LAUGHTER], with this paddle going backwards and forwards inside it. And that's what they called the first automatic washer. Aye. And of course they'd never They very rarely thought of washing clothes in tap water those days, it was all rainwater. Every house had got it's own it's own rainwater tub. And by God, it were a luxury if w you washed out holding hot water first thing in the morning. You used to go out in the in the wash-house and wash yourselves, under the cold water tap. Up to the eyes in snow, up to the toilet which was about twenty yards away, that was where lived then, in the house where Building Society is now, lived there for thirty four year.
[speaker002:] Where's that?
[speaker003:] On Street.
[speaker002:] Can you remember things that your mother used to do to make the money go further when
[speaker003:] I can.
[speaker002:] when you were short?
[speaker003:] Oh, yes, well I mean I o obviously I When she worked She used to get up I'll tell you another thing that she used to do. She used to get up in the morning, every Tuesday and Friday and catch the half past seven bus, from to Nottingham and another bus down to Boulevard, to Miss 's, do a day's skivvying and come back again, and then do her ironing and so forth, at night-time. And my God, they weren't such facilities as er what's-a-name, if it was er wet weather. You Every house had got lines across the the kitchen, you used to put hang the washing in the kitchen, to get it dry. On the fireguard, above the fireplace,i there wasn't many houses that hadn't got a line across the fireplace, like that. And you'd put handkerchiefs and collars and that, and you used to have to starch the collars in those days. Robin's Starch, Beckett's Blue, and all this and that. And then of course they used to iron them. And it was hell's own job with sitting in the kitchen at night-time, a little kitchen, with washing hanging above your head, so the poor bugger could get it dry.
[speaker002:] This was other people's washing that she took in?
[speaker003:] Aye. And her own. And we didn't We hadn't got a wash-house of our own, we used to have to go to Miss 's, down the road, to do our washing. Borrow Miss 's.
[speaker002:] Why was that?
[speaker003:] You hadn't got We hadn't got a washing we hadn't got a wash-house. Oh, you were lucky if you'd got a wash-house attached to your house, in those days. You had to go to go to Miss 's and have it do it there, borrow her copper, and wringer. Blimey, no, it was a luxury if you'd got a washer then. And i [cough] and of course when she worked When Mum used to work in Nottingham you could er be assured that you'd have some bacon on a Saturday, and Sunday, because she used to call at T. N. 's in Street, and buy sixpenny worth of bits of bacon. Which was, say, when they'd started the the roll of bacon, there always used to be some little bits before they got the full rashers, well, you couldn't sell those, you couldn't s I mean even though things were tight in those days, you couldn't sell any sort of bacon, you either sold best back, or you sold belly bacon. And the bits that you got off, well, we poorer families used to have it then. Had to have that. Eggs were twenty four a shilling, little little eggs, looked like bullet eggs, came from Egypt. You still had to ask your Dad for a top off the egg if you were if you were a poor family.
[speaker002:] So only your Dad got an egg?
[speaker003:] On occasions, yes. When he was in work, and then sh we used to go to the local butcher's shop on a Saturday night, with the old bag, six o'clock Saturday night to Mr 's. That's where 's is now on on the hill. And my Dad used to say Go to Mr 's, and tell him you've come for your Dad's meat. Half a crown and that's what you got. Now half a crown in those days was a lot of money, you had to a full day's work for half a crown, make no mistake on that. Half a crown And you used to come away with a big piece of flat brisket and if he's got any sausage left, or bits a of pork pies, he used to shove a bit of that in. And Mr, me Dad wants to know if you've got a ham bone? He says one day, me lad, if you don't come back quick, he said, I shall sell it, threepence, and there was a lot of ham of it, in those days. Bones. From the butchers. Potherbs.
[speaker002:] What? Can you explain what potherbs is?
[speaker003:] Well, I told you what potherbs was, potherbs is what you buy, you go and you perhaps get a couple of sticks of c celery, that was taken off the side, you know? The trimmings. Carrots. Parsnips. Turnips. Onion. And they used to make two penny worth up and that's what they called potherbs, in those days. Why they were called potherbs, don't ask me, but it was always known as potherbs. Two penny worth of bones from the butchers, and two penny worth of potherbs. Now that used to go in the old stew pot and they used to boil the bones till the meat dropped off, and the vegetables And that was your most of your meal for the rest of the week. And in the morning you used to have soaky very few pe very few lads had breakfast, bacon and eggs, in those days. It was soaky or porridge.
[speaker002:] What's soaky
[speaker003:] Porridge? Soaky? Soaky was a basin full of bread, with sugar and milk and er a basin full of tea, with sugar and milk, and bread soaked in it. And you used to have that, that was your breakfast. And we Nestle's milk. Nestle's milk conjures up a lot of memories for me. [cough]. We had it in all ways, shapes and forms. Spread on your bread, eat it by the spoonful, great big chunks of thick bread with Ho e home made jam,y your Mam didn't buy those jams in those days, me darling.
[speaker002:] She made her own, did she?
[speaker003:] She made her own chutney, and made her own pickles, even though she was at work. She used to make all the And er home-made wine. And always in my attic, in our bedroom, as kids, you could always see dried dock leaves and dried stinking nanny, for poultices, for abscesses and boils. Always. And tea. You always had a bush, that was horrible! Detestable stuff, but my Dad always insisted that we had an egg cup full, once a week.
[speaker002:] What was if for?
[speaker003:] To keep your blood clear.
[speaker002:] Mm.
[speaker003:] And always on a Sunday morning, when you got up, Sunday morning, epsom salts. A little, enough to cover a silver threepenny bit, in a saucer and some tea on it, and you just had to take it, drink it. To keep your bowels right. And as I was saying about all this, you're saying What did my Mother do to eke it out? Eke the food out? She used to go to the butchers and get breast of lamb, scrag-end, sheep's head, pig's head. And if she got half a pig's head she used to cut the pig's head in half and used to use the top half, and that was where the ears was, and everything, boil it until all all the meat dropped off and then she used to put in er a big basin, scrumple it up in her fingers, put some of the juice in, and put a seven pound weight on it, and a saucer, and make brawn. Now the bottom half,th it's j jaw, you used to boil that and make chap of it, pig's chap, and that was a luxury. Beautiful. You don't s see it today, but's it's beautiful.
[speaker002:] What is it?
[speaker003:] Pig's chap, it's a pig's pig's jaw, the bottom jaw. Th this part here.
[speaker002:] Cheek?
[speaker003:] Y yeah.
[speaker002:] Mm.
[speaker003:] Pig's cheek. But it's called pig's chap, [LAUGHTER] in those days []. [cough]. And on a S Monday, it were always killing day at the Co-op, always killing day. Then on a Tuesday, they used to make the black puddings, the plonney the scratchings, the potted meat, and they used to come on sale. You used to see all the scratchings and all stu steaming hot, with the black puddings and the plonney shining like silver sixpences. And the pork dripping, beef dripping. Oh yes, it was marvellous, that's how they used to make it, in those days. Then they You dropped the old er breasts of lamb in the old stew pot, chop it up, and then if there was any left, me Mam used to take it out, so we could eat it cold. Beautiful s er breast of lamb is, if you've never tried it, my duck. Get a breast of lamb. Get your butcher to bone it, make a nice stuffing, roll it up, wrap it in a nice bit of tinfoil, stick it in the oven and you've got a beautiful meal, me darling. Or the old roast brisket. Brisket. You used to do the old brisket, in the saucepans, along with the potherbs and so forth. Pearl barley, you don't hear pearl barley now. By God, it was a must in those days, pearl barley. Y
[speaker002:] What was it used for?
[speaker003:] With cooking, like rice. And we used to put it in stews. You put it in stews, my duck. Oh yes, and er of course mostly, in these outlying districts, you mostly grew your own vegetables. And it was always a ritual for the gardeners to have new potatoes and peas ready for Wake Sunday.
[speaker002:] When's that?
[speaker003:] That was the last Saturday in July, the nearest Saturday to St Peter's. And we always have used to have that on a Wake Sunday. New potatoes, home grown new potatoes. And s i if you were lucky, some ham. Then on a Sunday night, the village, what they call wakes, they call them wakes in those days, not the village fair, it was the wakes. Mr used to open up his dragons and start his steam engine and driving the organ, and he used to give an organ recital every wakes' Sunday night for the cot fund. Cos we used to have support so many cots in the children's hospital, and we used to run concerts. Mr Len, well known man. was running all this for the Ruddington cot funds. [LAUGHTER]. [LAUGHTER] was the fire brigade chief, was a newspaper man [], and this was how we ran in this village. We ran all sorts of little things, see? And it was a very friendly little village. My mother, apart from being a skivvying, she used to go out with along with Mrs, doing the hatched, matched and dispatched department. Now, do you know what that is? Well, that's the births, marriages and deaths. And if anybody was sick, in those days, and they were nearly dying, we used to sit up with them, night after night. And if they died, we us I helping my moni my Mother many at time, to wash them down, before they put them in the coffins. Put the false teeth in, and the pennies in the eyes, and and that sort of thing.
[speaker002:] Did she get paid for doing that?
[speaker003:] Aye. And then you'd send for Mr, the undertaker, or Mr, and he'd come along and measure and then make your coffin. I've got my Mother's bill here, I'll show it you. [tape change] That was what, that was nineteen twenty eight, when I started work and I worked for and M., House, Road. And er I used to get se seven and sixpence a week, seven and sixpence a week. And of course I wa I was due to learn the trade, I wasn't an apprentice. I was due to learn the trade from start to finish with the with the idea of getting myself up to getting on the road. So I started as an errand boy and half a crown a week was my bus fare, which give me, entitled me two journeys, a return journey each day.
[speaker002:] From to Nottingham?
[speaker003:] From, it was fourpence, return. Or if you wanted to go home for your dinner and go back again in the afternoon, well, that was four and sixpence, which entitled you to do a Saturday journey. And you used to have a little ticket, with the days on, and they used to punch it with the old, you remember the old punching machines, don't you? Well they used to punch your ticket, with a little hole in, so that they'd know you'd had your journey. Now as I say, I started at that price and I used to have to help in the warehouse, in the packing and so forth, and then if there was any parcels to go into Nottingham I used to have to deliver them, by hand. And carry them, either carry them, or push them on a two-wheeled trolley, all through the round the lace market to 's, and various other And if I were lucky, and the 's van was going round the lace market, and I'd got three or four parcels, I used to go with little Tommy and his horse and van, round the lace market, and he was delivering dress goods then. And then he used to pick the undress goods up to go to G and W 's, still down Road. See? And er of course, as years went by I got to a to be on the invoicing side, after that.
[speaker002:] So you? That was an office job was it?
[speaker003:] Yeah. That was making the invoices out for the parcel. Oh, and then I went u started as a packer after that, packing, which was an art, in those days. H we had to pack hampers, and so forth, see? And big parcels. And then I went on invoicing. And then from invoicing, I went into the factory, of course, to learn how the goods were made, which was very interesting. You see the i it was er we used to make curtains then for Littlewoods, Littlewoods as it is now, they're still, you know, the they were about the [LAUGHTER] forerunners [] of the er tt this er catalogue business, and if they gave us an order that would last us a long time, and that usually the eight points, which was meant to say there were eight threads to an inch. That's how you measured curtains in the quality of the curtains was so many points to an inch. The more points to an inch, the finer the goods were, you see? If it was just a six point, or a seven point, then it was a real coarse one, cheap, for American markets. But we used to Littlewoods used to give us an order, for one machine, or two machines, and you could keep your machine on this one particular set of curtains, without changing your jacks, without changing your beams, without changing your bodies, you could work straight on and on and on. Well, they used to do them at fourpence ha'penny a pair, and each one must be put in a big envelope, so as it could go out on this catalogue business. And that sort of stuff used to go to America, because in er we had quite a big American market in those days because they didn't wash curtains in America, they used to put them up until they dar until they dropped down and then put new curtains up, you see? And er... we er tt... we er... we made er a lot of blackout stuff during the war, we had they called the Federation of British Industries, which was an annual fair at Birmingham, and my firm used to s used to exhibit there. Bu and er [cough] of course, most of your work was done from these Federation stores, stalls, Birmingham and London. [cough] And I recall at the beginning of the war, [cough] they got a an almost light-proof black out curtaining, and I can re see it today, The Queen bought some, they were on exhibition. Buckingham Palace I should say, not the Queen, but Buckingham Palace bought some. And I can remember tenneyex telex coming through and we did our own er er signs in those days, you know, er advertising placards, it was red hot on the press. Blackout curtaining, as bought by Buckingham Palace. And of course, you couldn't keep pace with it, because Buckingham Palace had bought it you see, and it was good.
[speaker002:] What were these blackout curtains made of, then?
[speaker003:] Well it was er, a dense, thick, curtain, so dense that it was hardly visible, because in those days, during the first world war, during the thirty nine forty five war, blackout was essential. You can't remember the blackout, can you? You see the idea, was if you had lights in your house and there was just a kink, or chink, they used to call them in those days, they could be spotted from the air, so th You either had wooden shutters at your window, or blackout curtaining. You weren't allowed to show any lights. Even the, what few bits of lorries were on the road, they had a special mask on with er a shield over the top, so that the light wasn't visible up above. Cos, probably you don't realize that, even a cigarette light,... if you drew a cigarette, like that, and er and made it glow, it's visible for quite a few hundred yards in the darkness. And consequently we was all subject, and you were fined very heavily if you were, if you tore these what's- a-names, blackouts, that's the name. And then of course, we we also made the, at my firm, made the er Battle of Britain curtain, which was very famous, in those days, and I think they're still I used to have one but I don't know where the devil it went to. Cos it, most of the things got lost during the war, you know? Dra
[speaker002:] That was the [recording ends]