大象传媒

WORK AT R J PATCHETT鈥橲, CLAYTON HEIGHTS

[Ron Gould, an Evacuee from Guernsey, left the Vauxbelets school in the summer of 1942. Edited extracts from typescript he prepared in 2005.]

At this time my mother was not at all well, she had had a big operation in Basingstoke and so was not able to work, so her sister, my Aunt, had her come up to live in Bradford to recover. I arrived and found that Mum had sent for my two sisters, Pam and Jean, to come down from Paisley to stay in Bradford, not just for a holiday. Mum knew she could not lose them again.
Anyway it was then decided that at that time I was the only one who would be able to go out and earn a wage, after all I was now 14 years old and I certainly did not shout and scream when I was told "You are not going back to School". I must have gone back to Miss Yearsley to pick up my bits and pieces but I cannot remember this.

I can remember my Aunt taking me down to the labour Exchange in Bradford and as we were living at Horton Bank Top I was offered a job at the famous Black Dyke Mills for 30/- (拢1.50 a week) or else go to work for R J Patchetts at Clayton Heights for 25/- (拢1.25 a week). Local advice was 'Don't go into the mills lad' so I took notice and started in the Battery Hut at Patchetts.

I was taken to town and bought a couple of pairs of bib and brace overalls, which seemed to be what most of the men were wearing and remember I was up till then a very small 14 and was still in short trousers. I did not even own a pair of long trousers, so my first year at work I wore short trousers under my overalls. One thing I found very difficult when I started work was to call everyone by their Christian names. I managed "Horace", our foreman, and I think I called Eric, our Manager, "Eric" and that was OK, but the thought of calling Arthur "Arthur" horrified me.

Being so small was quite an asset because a big part of the workers in our hut were women and they thought I was something else, straight out of college, hardly even speaking the same language, so obviously the ladies took me under their wing and all the more so when they found out that I was from Guernsey and I wasn't at all sure how my Dad was doing under the Germans.

Our hut was called the Battery Hut because before the War they made battery cages for hens and in fact they made thousands of them for "Ovaltine" and others but of course we were on War work making handles, corner pieces and so on for ammunition boxes which were being made in another part of the works. We started work at 7.45 am till noon with a 10 minute break at 10.00 am. We started again at 12.45 until 5.15 pm with a 10 minute break at 3.00 pm. Saturday we finished at 12 noon and there was no Sunday work.

The work was, of course, very repetitive but you could be moved around onto different machines and a few months after I started I was made 'the tea lad' which meant I collected orders from the workers for anything they wanted at the shop just across the road, not that there was much to buy, even cigarettes (mainly Wills Woodbines) could only be bought singly if available.

I had to take all their mugs containing their Mach (tea and sugar) up in two long trays holding 12 mugs in each to the tea room and later bring them all down again after boiling water had done its job. One lady who lived almost on the premises was very popular with me, as she used to make rice puddings and they were sold by the slice when cold, they were so thick, but lovely!

Also I had to take orders for fish and chips daily, take an ammunition box, catch the tram up to Queensbury and be sure to be back in time for when they stopped at 12.00 - all a rush but it got me out of the factory. Sometimes the wind would be blowing so hard that we would not be allowed upstairs on the tram and all the windows would be open so that the wind could blow straight through. We would present the 'Chippy' with our list and as he did the order he could say "1 fish and chips" and I would have to mark the corner "1FI" or "1CI" if fishcake and chips - price 4d and 2id!
I used to walk to work at first and in the Winter it was so black you had to drag one foot in the tram line to make sure you were going in the right direction and of course Clayton Heights is on top of the Pennines and when it snows it really snows! Sometimes the Christmas snow is still around at Easter, but it made no difference, you were still expected to be at work. At one time I used to wear big clogs with two inch wooden soles and hefty irons underneath that. In the quiet of 7.30 am I am sure they could hear me coming up the road when I was still a mile away!

The carpenters in the woodshop were very good to me during my first I. Winter at work. They very kindly made me a lovely sledge and I was able to join many others on Beacon Hill and have a great time. Everyone was always so kind to me.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.