Recorded Memories

Flo Clarke Interview. August 2000.
 

Work, Family and Friendship: ‘Here have my nail file, it’s got my name on’.

The room Flo worked in at Simpkins had a glass roof,
‘it about baked you’ when it was hot’.

Flo noted that Simpkins had been pulled down and flats were being built in its place – another monstrosity!
So many people coming into Hinckley for work, her husband, Dick came from Yorkshire to work at the brick yard (Asda site). She was introduced to him by her friend’s husband. He worked at the quarry until it closed and spent the last 7-8 years at Sketchley’s doing the ‘slatting’. Flo enjoyed her working life and when Simpkins closed she and her friend, Dorothy, went to work for Hinckley Fine Gauge. They were both in their late 50s and in order to qualify for a full pension they both needed to work until they were 61. The Fine Gauge discontinued mending and introduced invisible mending which they didn’t want to do, they learnt the overlocking and Flo commented that they had better jobs at the end of their working lives.

We continue recording by looking at various stockings given to me by individuals and companies and Flo commented on the different types including a plain black stocking with a clock up the side (embroidery). She commented that lisle stockings always looked very nice. She explains ‘plaited’ and describes her job as a mender. A pair of stockings bought in the factory cost 4d. We also looked at photos of factories and various jobs being undertaken. She helped to dress people up before they got married, commenting on someone she’d seen tied up near the Weavers Arms just a few weeks back. She remembers Jennings factory before it was extended, she was ‘borrowed’ by Nicholls and Wileman when the factory was first opened on Wood Street; hanks of yarn being wound onto bobbins; back-winding being a process whereby damaged stockings were pulled apart and yarn re-used. One photo reminded her of the room she worked at in Simpkins, with coat hooks all round the room, the room she worked in at Simpkins had a glass roof – ‘it about baked you’ when it was hot. Her sister was a welter. There were so many jobs.