Personal Stories: 1910 - 1919

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Well I mean everything then – well a lot of things – they weren’t pre-packed; we used to have to weigh flour you know. There were three lads and every Thursday morning we were in the ‘back hole’ as we called it, weighing flour for a full morning; one filling the bags, another one weighing ‘em and the other wrapping them up. There were stones, half stones, four pounds and two pound bags you see, and the sacks they came in were two hundred and forty pounds weight and they used to go down the shute, then we used to dish it out into the bags so it was a full morning’s jobs for three lads. Sugar was…Tate & Lyle’s sugar had just started pre-packing but there was still quite a lot that we weighed out into two pounds bags.

We were in a proper run-down area and we were a bit neglected. Long shot, we got taken to an orphanage. Mother died…I never did find out when she actually died, and only thirty-five. There were three of us, two sisters and me and we were rather badly neglected, and oh they was out of work and getting his dole money twenty-three shillings a week but he could still afford to smoke and drink and make a real mess of his life you know, so we were taken away and put in an orphanage so that was the start.

Well when I were learning, I learnt in t’top shed and then I were in t’middle shed quite a while. You started off with two looms, then you get three looms and then four looms, and I finished up in t’middle shed.

There was six children; I was the youngest of six children and my eldest brother was twenty…well he was married actually before I was born. My mother was forty-eight when I was born, I was the last in the family so I was spoilt being the youngest, so the others said.
My four brothers were in the First World War; one was a sailor, he was the married one and he went all through the war.

Well me dad’s the best dad in the world, I’ll tell yer that. Me mum weren’t me real mum because she died when…there were three tiny little girls and she died when we were three tiny little girls and me dad had to bring us up; he had to take us to me grandma’s so she that could look after us and then we could go to school and he could go to work. Isn’t that good? That’s very good. It is that.