Recorded Memories
Doreen Marvin and Gordon Kayliss Interviews. October 2000.
Work, family and social life in Hinckley and Earl Shilton from the 1940s:
‘Job for life or if you didn’t like your job…get another one…plenty of jobs then’
‘I met my wife at Flude’s …I was 16…I’ll marry you…and I did’ –‘She were gorgeous’
There were a lot of romances in the factory, many young people meeting their future wives or husbands. Gordon met his future wife, Jean, while working at Flude’s, he told her when he was 16 that he would marry her, at this time she was seeing someone else.
Gordon spent most Friday and Saturday evenings at The George and at this time they had something called a ‘Ladies Privilege’ whereby a girl could ask a boy dance – and Jean asked Gordon to dance! They were married when they were both 19. Jean died in 1971 and Gordon was made redundant from Courtualds (Percy Taylor’s) at the end of 1971. He started work for Elite Hosiery on 1 January 1972.
Doreen’s husband lived in Barwell and worked at Marvin Brothers, New Street, Earl Shilton. He was a relation of the owners of the firm. Doreen was also a relation of the founders of Bennett Brothers; they were her grandmother’s brothers. Other members of her family also worked at Bennett’s - her father was a commercial traveller often visiting London and Manchester, he also worked in the office and the warehouse, her brother worked as a fully fashioned maker (knitter). She also had aunts who had worked for the company. Fully fashioned knitters could earn good money, countermen were also well paid, Gordon’s father and brother both worked as countermen. Gordon’s father cycled from Leicester to Hinckley every day to work at A Davenport & Sons on Wood Street, as a counterman. At this time, mid 1930s there was no work in Leicester, hence the reason for moving to Hinckley. Crowds came into Hinckley, Barwell and Earl Shilton from Barlestone, Desford, Newbold, & Ibstock.
Years ago a good atmosphere in the factory but Gordon commented on a change of attitude, ‘too serious now, it’s all money now’. No stress years ago but Gordon did admit to worrying about various problems he encountered with different machinery over the years. Jobs weren’t as easy to come by so stress becomes more ‘built up’ in protecting your job – ‘how am I going to get over that problem’. Not all mechanics shared information, ‘I want to be the high and mighty’. Over the years he also had to adapt to different working styles – he started his working life as a finishing mechanic at Flude’s. At Lockley and Garner he repaired single feed knitting machines from there he worked on 8-feed knitting machines which knitted hose in 90 seconds, ‘from producing stockings and tights I ended up (working life) making knickers for Marks and Spencer’. The knitting machines were adapted to making tubes of fabric and the boss at Elite devised a way of cutting the various shapes and sizes for women’s and children’s knickers. While working on knitting machines Gordon related some incidents with the knitters, if they fell out; one knitter collected spiders and flies and put them into the machine, another knitter thrashed his machine with a leather belt. Some knitters at the end of a shift would cut all the yarn and the knitter on the next shift would have continual ‘press-offs’. With the invention of ‘knot-catchers’, however this was prevented from happening because the machine would automatically stop. At ‘Fludies’ laddered silk stockings would be repaired and sold as ‘odds’. At Bennett’s you would take your best fully fashioned stockings into factory to be mended, this was done by a mender using a hook. There were also machines resembling toasters which were used to get rid of ‘pull threads’ – ‘Tomlin’s had no end of them’. When a girl first started on a particular job she was ‘ever so careful’ but soon picked up speed.
Doreen remembers the messing about in the factory, the knitters throwing the young girls into skips, listening to Music While You Work at 10.30 every morning - ‘all the women would be singing at the top of their voices’. All these old dance band songs. At one time she sneaked a wind-up gramophone into the factory. On VE Day 8 May 1945 she remembers Churchill announcing the end of the war in Europe and to celebrate Doreen and her friends made an effigy of Hitler and, ‘hung him by his neck from the steam pipe’. There was a lot of sadness at this time but also a time of celebration. Gordon and Doreen were children during the war and both remember the Anderson Shelters – ‘like a rabbit hutch inside’ and the communal shelters located in various places. Gordon remembers waving his father off when he went to serve in Italy he had also served during WWI. Everyone was given a gas mask and Doreen’s father was senior fire warden during WW2. They both remember land mines being dropped and the bombing in Merrivale Avenue and Coventry being ‘all lit up at night’ because of the bombing raids. As children, however, they were still allowed to play and ride their bikes, Doreen commenting on seeing the Italian POWs working in the fields.
They both look back on these times as being happy and carefree but agree that times were hard and they didn’t have much. Gordon is looking at Flude photographs of filming and praises the way girls and women dressed years ago. Both criticised modern-day fashions - jeans and boots (girls) ‘they look as if they are navvying!’ Girls and women were feminine years ago, they wore dresses and high heeled shoes. They had their hair done. During the 1940s/50s the American films were very popular and Doreen and her friends admired the likes of Betty Grable and Rita Heyworth. As a youngster in the factory Doreen was taught the ‘splicing’ by an older girl, after about a year she went on the ‘welting’ and learnt the job working on ‘odds’ - ‘it was lovely the first day you had a good bundle of work’. By the time she was 16 Doreen and friends would go to the dance on a Saturday night at the The George and on Saturday mornings girls would wear a turban to work. Doreen remembers there was no hair spray at this time and they would set their hair using an ‘Amami Wave Set’. As youngsters they learnt to dance with the likes of Maggie Marshall and were also taught the jitterbug by older girls while at school. Gordon remembers when he started going to The George, the Bebop was the popular dance and it was his friend who taught him to ‘Bebop’. He was also taught to tie a’ Windsor knot’ and there was a craze for the ‘Birds Eye’ suit – ‘Birds Eye’ being the name of the material. The ladies wore costumes which were also made out of the same material. Bird’s Eye was a grey material with a little black dot. Gordon also mentions the three-quarter ‘swagger’ coats which were also fashionable at this time – ‘gorgeous they were’. Both Doreen and Gordon were quick to emphasise how feminine women were at this time, nowadays everyone wears trousers.