Recorded Memories

Nellie Skelton Interview. June 1998.

Living and working in Stoke Golding: HJ Hall & Sons 1928-1977:'We loved to go to the pictures then...'

'We had some good outings from Hall's - Alton Towers, Blackpool, Hunstanton... that was Mr Frank Hall'

Nellie was on the dole for some time during the 1930s, and she with a few friends walked into Hinckley three times a week to sign on and she felt as if they begrudged her the money she received.
They still went to the cinema, however. She remembers with relish the fritters and peas they had from the chip shop at the top of Castle Street.
At this time they still wore hats. Nellie thinks she was earning about £10 a week before she finished work in 1977/78.
She remembers the Union paying extra money when food prices went up and money went down when food prices came down.
She didn’t necessarily get paid for overtime and worked a set of five XL machines from the age of 21, which was the usual number of knitting machines for a woman. She remembers saving £12.
She often went on the train to Birmingham paying 2 guineas for her first coat. Nellie and her friends regularly caught the bus into Leicester, commenting that she would be lost in Leicester now.

She left school with a couple of other girls and they went to work at another hosiery factory in Stoke Golding, they did something called ‘basting’ and earned 8s a week. At that time they wore long black stockings and the ‘basting’ was a red stitching at the top of the stocking.
Nellie left this factory to work at a pub in the village, the landlady wanted her to be a barmaid but she didn’t like this job and from the pub she went to work at Hall’s.
When she first started work at 14 she was left with 1s after handing over her wages to her mother, commenting that her mother was dependent on this money.
She remembers they moved from the cottage when she was 14 into the house she still lives in – she’s been there 71 years. She seems to remember the rent being 7s 6d a week.
She had no ambition to do anything else – perhaps working as a linker rather than as a knitter! Her friend, under different circumstances would like to have been a children’s nurse.

With her shilling Nellie and a friend would go into Nuneaton. She remembers a little chip shop and the Hippodrome where they sat up in the Gods to watch the films. They also went to the Hippodrome to watch the ‘amateurs’. She remarked on the fact that all the lovely cinemas had gone – such lovely architectural buildings – sad.
Halls organised lots of outings – Alton Towers, Blackpool, Hunstanton, Rhyl, London - they were also taken for meals.
She went on holidays with friends and they would save 2s 6d out of their wages every week and these savings would pay for their holidays. She remembers spending Whitsun 1953 in Skegness and queued up to watch the Queen’s Coronation on TV in a big hall. The first time she went on a seaside holiday was to Scarborough in 1937.

As children they went out on Sunday school outings – she remembers going on a barge up to Market Bosworth. They also went to concerts at the school and the chapel held Magic Lantern evenings. There was also the Band of Hope.
The Hall family at this time lived in Stoke Golding and she remembers Peter and Bernard coming in the Warehouse when they were on holidays from college. They also had two sisters.
Mrs Hall had her own horses and Nellie’s father would go and help her with them – ‘he knew a lot about horses’.
Nellie’s mother had worked for the ‘old man’ – John Hall who started the business. At this time the Hall family lived in a house behind the factory.

Every May Day the children would make and decorate a Maypole and go round the village with their Maypoles singing for which they received ‘a copper-or-two’. They walked miles as youngsters and one of her chores during haymaking was to take her dad a drink, this she did during dinner time, she would then go back to school.
When she worked in the Warehouse at Halls it was her job every morning to get the cocoa for two of the men. She also did a bit of shopping for an old lady for this she received about 6d and another job she did after school was to take a can of tea up to the factory (the first factory she’d worked at). She also helped deliver the milk from the farm and in those days the milk was poured into cans.
She remembers something called ‘beasting’ - when a cow calved it produced a yellowy cream and it made a lovely custard pudding.
She remembers the lady at the farm would put the milk through a sieve and she would give Nellie a glass which she loved.

Hours worked in the factory were long 8 till 6, sometimes they worked until 6.30 and sometimes they started at 7.30 and they always worked a Saturday morning 8-11.
She also played hockey some Saturday afternoons and before the game started they would have to clear off all the cow-muck from the field. Never a dull moment!

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