Z1205/077

Male. Vehicle mechanic employed at brickworks then Millbrook Proving Ground b. 27.09.1931 Side A (00 mins)Brought up in Ridgmont in an estate cottage owned by the Duke of Bedford. Father was labourer on the estate. No sewerage. Shared standpipe for water outside. (05 mins)Bucket toilet, emptied at bottom of garden. Self-supporting with vegetables. Kept chickens and pigs. "Closed" entirely owned by Duke. Gangs of hedgers and ditchers. Oil lamps until electricity arrived in 1930s. (10 mins)Childhood games in the village. Catching rabbits. Boy scout group in Husborne Crawley. No street lighting. Most women were housewives. (15 mins)Father worked inside the Woburn Estate park wall. As a child, fed bison with him. Road cut off by snow in winter. Maternal grandparents in Eversholt. He worked with horses on a farm. Paternal grandfather was a blacksmith. Butcher in the village and baker and milkman both delivered. (20 mins)Three pubs, one shop, a church and two chapels in Ridgmont. Most people attended church or chapel several times on Sundays. Church of England church, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels. Primary school in village, then on to Woburn Sands at 11 years, unless you gained a scholarship to Bedford Modern School, which few did. Cycling to school. (25 mins)Left school at 14. Joined brickworks at Ridgmont with Marston Valley Co.(Father wounded in First World War).Became a mechanic at brickworks. Got motorbike at 17. Moved to work at Vauxhall Motors, Luton in 1955. (30 mins)Factory pay. End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Loaded brick lorry broke down on railway crossing at Ridgmont. Health & safety problems with early vehicle repair pits. (05 mins)Millbrook Proving Ground became independent form Vauxhall Motors. Married in 1959. Changes in village life. Far more road traffic now. Children could play safely on roads when he was a child. Council houses built in Ridgmont. (10 mins)Wartime use of Woburn Park including aeroplane runway to allow servicing of Sterling bombers. Changes at Woburn Abbey since Second World War. Impact of M1 motorway opening to weekend traffic through mid-Beds villages. Wartime plane crash in Segenhoe Park. Grandmother worked at Elstow Storage Depot munitions factory. (15 mins)Wartime brickmaking by women. Wartime distribution of bricks by train, then lorries to bombed areas. Problems with early lorries - no heaters, not very good brakes, no anti-freeze. Orange-painted lorries, with black lettering. (20 mins)Lorries with trailers. Post-war improvement in lorries. Reflections on closure of brickworks. Smell of brickwork chimneys during heyday. (25 mins)Disapproves of landfill and methane smell. (27 mins)End of Side B End of Interview Original interview 60 mins

30 November 2001

From: 1925 To: 2001

item

Marston Valley Brickworks,
Vauxhall Motors

mechanic, brick worker, labourer, sewerage, water, pigs, chickens, electricity, CHILDREN, rabbits, Boy Scouts, Woburn Abbey, snow, horses, blacksmith, butcher, baker, milkman, Public House, Baptist chapels, Wesleyan Methodist, Bedford Modern School, cycling, motorcycles, World War One, HEALTH & SAFETY, general road transport, aeroplanes, World War Two, M1, Elstow Storage Depot, employment of women, air raids over UK, lorries, pollution, chimneys, landfill, gas, wages/conditions, Ministry of Munitions, motor vehicles, MILLBROOK, RIDGMONT, HUSBORNE CRAWLEY, EVERSHOLT, WOBURN SANDS, LUTON, Segenhoe, ELSTOW, Millbrook Proving Ground