Recorded Memories
Reflections on work, family and social life in Earl Shilton 1929-1980:
‘There used to be
crowds in the street…this was a very prosperous village…’
‘My aunt was probably on about £5-£6, for a woman (knitter) and me uncle he were in the shoe trade, he was a clicker…a skilled man…we were very fortunate’
Bill was born in November 1914 and started work at the age of 14 in 1928 at A. Bradbury Ltd, Keats Lane, Earl Shilton. He was an apprentice in the warehouse and did all
manner of work as a young lad earning between 5s[25p] and 7s 6d[37½p] a week. He remembers Toon’s whistle being blown at 7.50 every morning and Cotton’s factory whistle went
off at 7.55.
Yarn delivered to the yarn man who would sort it into various qualities – the rough yarn used for men’s half hose, women’s hose was sent to be dyed. There was one lift,
but most of the work was carried round manually - up and down the stairs. In its heyday there were about 600-800 people at Toon’s; Bradbury’s 400-600 and Nicholls and
Wileman 300-400. Men with ambition set up on their own - all gone - only Breconshire left (at time of interview). Bill enjoyed his job. Bus companies sprang up in
response to the people coming into the village from Coalville and other areas - coal mining areas. All knitting machinery was made in Leicester, now made abroad and
what machinery is left is sent abroad. A lot more pressure due to E.U. legislation.
Years ago everyone worked locally - 8 o’clock to 6 o’clock and with overtime worked until 7 o’clock. With overtime some men could earn up to £7-£8 before WW2. If a
child had a good education then they would become a bank clerk, work in an office. A bank clerk’s money, however, was poor compared to what could be earned in the factory.
The hosiery is now dead owing to foreign competition. On completion of his apprenticeship at about 20 Bill went on his ‘own time’. Bill’s aunt could earn between £5 and
£6 a week as a knitter and his uncle worked as a clicker in the boot and shoe industry. His aunt and uncle, he considered as well off. He did at times, during his
apprenticeship, hate his job and hid in corners out of the way. It was at this time he set up as a book-maker taking bets for the local dog track, this carried on for a
year until he was discovered by Mr Bradbury!
He went out and about with manufacturer’s sons and went on a week’s annual holiday to Cleethorpes with his aunt and uncle. Bill remembers people taking unplucked cockerels,
potatoes, peas etc and it was called ‘boarding-in’. Coming back to Earl Shilton everyone had to get off the bus except for the driver and his uncle, the bus couldn’t get up
the hill into Earl Shilton with a busload of people. Bill went with his uncle and the Earl Shilton Choir to Wembley Exhibition where he saw Tutankhamun and thinking
‘how horrible.’
Men would kick their machine, tea was made in an urn for which factory workers paid 1d a week. Operatives were paid by the dozen once they were on ‘their own time’.
There were so many different operations in producing a stocking. With the introduction of shift work knitting machines would be working 24 hours a day. During the 1930s
people started coming up from London to buy stockings in the local factories. Bradbury’s supplied Woolworths and Nicholls and Wileman supplied Marks and Spencers.
Bill talked about his aunt’s family – ‘Fiery Toon’. His aunt was killed while cycling; Bill was about 17 at the time. His aunt and uncle, Edith and Harry Platt were
married in 1912, both were 22. His uncle came to Earl Shilton from Tamworth and married Edith. Bill along with workmates would take a day off to follow the hunt.
According to Bill ‘life was sweet’. He refers to the food they ate as being ‘high quality’ - supermarket food, however, he refers to as ‘mush’. Bill had always gone in pubs,
the Bowling Green (Ashfields Restaurant) being very close to Bradbury’s and a shandy would be waiting for him. A lot of hilarity in the pubs - men would come in with rabbits,
and watercress stuffed in their pockets. He also remembers the ‘old girls’ who took snuff and also commented that many people chewed on tobacco. He remembers the sewers being
put in in the village.
He feels people had a lot more time then - sit and talk. They’d go off to the fields and slide down haystacks and climb trees.
Bill and Vera continue their chat and reminiscing. His aunt Mary had a farm near to where the surgery now stands on Heath Lane, his uncle Jack had a very painful carbuncle
and a cowpat was used as a poultice to ‘break’ the carbuncle. Both remember taking lessons at a building on West Street - cookery, sewing and embroidery for girls and
carpentry and gardening for boys. There have been a lot of changes in the village, ‘rip things up nowadays…everywhere closing down…no manners, no thoughts for other folks’.
They had a discussion about the toilet being on full view and the lock being broken. As youngsters they both went to the dance at the co-op (carpet shop on High Street.
The dance was held upstairs). They also went to Rev Titley’s dance in Barwell.
Vera leaves five minutes into session. Bill was teased at work about Cleethorpes, ‘you’ve not been to the seaside…it’s only a river’. He has vivid memories of ‘a fella’
with no arms and using a fork between his toes to draw pictures in the sand. Similarly in Skegness a disabled man dived off the pier in a sack bag. Holiday and shop clubs
were popular years ago and Bill organized race meetings whereby people saved ‘so much’ a week. He remembers one year on an organized trip to Cleethorps from a pub where the
driver drove under a low bridge in Leicester and the luggage came off. They would often stop at pubs on the way. Railway workers, postal workers etc would earn a steady
wage of £2.50 but in a hosiery factory £4 or £5 could be earned. At a top place £6 – ‘you could buy a row of houses…’ There was a lot of unemployment in the early 1930s,
he does remember people coming up from London to buy stockings from local factories before the outbreak of WW2. Working as a counterman was an elite job. Well educated
people would take jobs as bank clerks and office clerks. The warehouse was a closed shop but during the 1960s and 70s women were accepted on the counter and gradually took
over from men.
Bill reflects on life - some people born lucky - family life the greatest thing - you can’t put an old head on young shoulders. Bill queried the idea that things were harder
years ago - go out to work, go dominoing and darting - ‘nobody’s got any time now’. He volunteered for the navy, his dad had been in the army and had been gassed while
serving in WW1 and as a very young child he saw the ‘misery and poverty when a man couldn’t work’. His old aunts at a very young age scrubbed out a cellar where rats ran
about. As a sailor in WW2 he saw many awful sights, they also lived through rationing …’and they talk about stress today!’
He hated his job when he first started. He remembers pure silk and nylons coming in, you could go to work in a suit. Men’s half hose and military work was rougher,
however. They did military work at King and Marvin’s. Marks and Spencers came and went at Nicholls and Wileman’s and Woolworths came and went at Bradbury’s. King and
Marvin’s took small contracts. According to Bill, Mr Bradbury and Billy Wileman started their working lives at Toon’s as countermen. Billy Wileman started up in business
just after WW1 in stables near to where the original factory was built on Wood Street. Bill talks about a ‘capitalist society’ where smaller firms got in the hands of
bigger firms. At work it got that no one knew each other, everything got speeded up - couldn’t talk. Years ago everybody told each other their problems – ‘no-one’s got
time for anything…’ ‘I’ve been fortunate’ - sliding down haystacks, nothing like sitting in a tree with the wind blowing. By age of 14 ready to start work, ‘I will soon
become a man’. ‘Into a lot of sport’. Bill liked spending money but always willing to earn it. In his last job (Breconshire Hosiery) he was told he could work for as long
as he wanted. He loved his work and no task was too menial. ‘My poor wife told me, ‘you talk too much’. Everyone has a story to tell. He feels these days, young people
don’t appreciate the value of anything but ‘I’m old fashioned’.
The first time he went flying was when he was in Skegness and his uncle paid 1s for Bill and half-a-crown for himself for a trip round the bay. They had to lift the plane
round because the brakes didn’t work.
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