Z1205/078

Male brickworker b. 21.08.1911 SIDE A (00 mins)Childhood in Marston Caulcott. Attended Shelton Methodist Chapel Sunday School. Lords Day observance - no work on Sundays. (05 mins)Chapel attendance. Members of family were Sunday School teachers. (10 mins)Undertaking in villages. Shopkeepers. Annual Sunday school outing to Wicksteed Park. Part-time work on local farm, as schoolboy. (15 mins)Mr. Franklin, local landowner and farmer, owned first Bentley car in area. Village football teams. (20 mins)Father worked all his life in brickyards (Franklins, then London Brick). Roof tile making. Paternal grandfather had his own coal delivery business serving local villages form Millbrook Railway Station. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Parents both over 30 when they married. Dad lived to 93 and Mum 92.Extended family lived close by. Many members of family worked for Franklins brickworks. He attended Marstone Village School at Church End. Had to fetch water from Moat Farm, using yoke and two buckets, to please schoolmaster. House had spring well and pump and a washhouse. (05 mins)Electricity arrived in 1935. Prior to that, oil lamp and candles used. Kept 40 - 50 rabbits. Worked full time on farm aged 14 - 16. Then joined London Brick Co. brickworks at Stewartby. (10 mins)Working with horses on farm. Large numbers of farm workers and horses in 1930s. (15 mins)Piece work at brickworks. Emptying chambers of fired bricks and loading on to wagons or lorries. (20 mins)First wages. Friendship of colleagues. Sharing garden produce with friends. (25 mins)Wartime work by women. (32 mins) End of Side B INTERVIEW CONTINUES ON 078C2 SIDE A (00 mins)Move to Kempston home. (05 mins)Decided to buy house. Earthing up vegetables over winter to preserve them. (10 mins)Rotation of crops in garden. Opening vegetable "pit" after Christmas. (15 mins)Raising chickens. Wide range of breeds. Selling surplus eggs at Peacocks on Wednesdays. (20 mins)Free range egg production. Meeting wife to be, after chapel. (25 mins)4 years courtship. (30 mins)Drawing bricks Piece work pay. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Wife never did paid work. Managed to survive thanks to garden and hens. (05 mins)Holidays in Bournemouth. (10 mins)Holiday activities at B & B. 20 years burning at Stewartby. Retirement gardening. (15 mins)Introduction of temperature gauges into chambers made burning process easier to regulate. Earlier methods used judgement of workers. (20 mins)Brickfiring problems before introduction of meters. (25 mins)Wages. Pension. (30 mins)End of Side B END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 120 mins.

4 December 2001

From: 1905 To: 2001

item

Franklins of Marston Ltd,
Marston Valley Brickworks,
Bentley,
London Brick Company

brick worker, Methodist chapels, Sunday Schools, teachers, undertaker, shopkeeper, farm worker, football clubs, coal dealer, Marston Moretaine Moat Farm, schoolmaster, school masters, electricity, rabbit farming, horses, wages/conditions, lorries, gardening, World War Two, employment of women, vegetables, household goods, crop rotation, Christmas, chickens, eggs, holidays, MARSTON MORETAINE, Caulcott, MILLBROOK, STEWARTBY, KEMPSTON, Bournemouth