Z1205/082

Male. Italian former brick worker. b. 16.05.1929 Side A (00 mins)Born and raised in Busso, Campobasso Province, southern Italy. 5 sisters, 4 brothers. Father worked their land (4-5 hectares) on a sharecrop basis, sharing the produce with the landowner.. Fruit trees, vineyards, cereal crops. Small number of animals. Brothers and sisters all worked on the land. All migrated when they grew up, except two sisters. (05 mins)All brothers migrated to work in the mines of Belgium. They all died of heart attacks. Interviewee had hernia and failed the medical examination for the mines. The family land was insufficient to support the family. Very poor yield. (10 mins)Eggs from the hens and turkeys sold at Christmas produced the only regular cash income, since there was no wage packet each week. They sold lamps at Easter. They had about 20 sheep once, declining to 4, later. Siblings were already married before they migrated. Parents were happy that they were finding work and a future. All hoped to return in a few years and buy a house, but none returned to Italy. (15 mins)Local elementary schooling. Boys only went to school until Mussolini came to power and changed the law to make schooling obligatory for both boys and girls. Parents could not read nor write. (20 mins)Worked as shepherd. Took sheep to the pastures. Cold winters. (25 mins)Fishing in local river using a net. Sold them for money. Began a man's work aged 12 using a light spade. Started work at sunrise and finished at sunset. Rested at midday. (32 mins)End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Four brother all took part in war (2 of them in Russia). German occupation of area. Then fighting with the Americans. Interviewee passed medical but was dismissed because he was the fifth son. He worked land. Severe parents. Childhood games. (05 mins)Youthful serenading of local girls. (10 mins)Met wife-to-be in the same street and sang songs to her. Meeting girls at local dancing rooms. Communal September harvest get-togethers at each other's homes to grind each other's grain. (15 mins)Dancing until late at night. Shared harvesting. (20 mins)Lifelong singer. Carnival time festivities: men dressed as women and vice-versa. Numerous dances. (25 mins)Had his children here and has been here 45 years. When he goes back to Italy, he knows nobody. When he was a youth and the migration posters first appeared, the local landowners hid them, frightened of losing their workers. One day, 45 men left the town. Some landowners also migrated and left their land uncultivated. Medical examinations held in Naples. (32 mins)End of Side B CONTINUED FROM CS082C Side A (00 mins)After passing medical checks in Italy, he was given a four-year contract by Felton Brick Company (in Marston Valley, Beds) and told he would work ont the presses. There were 5 or 6 from his village and altogether about 100 from his province of Campobasso, who met up in Milan on 26 June 1955. Started work, on night shift, on 29.06.1955. After two weeks, a few returned to Italy who could not stand the life here. (05 mins)Years later, after retirement, he is the only one form his village not to return. Migrant workers stayed at the hostel at Kempston Hardwick - Italians, Hungarians, Poles, and other foreign workers. Each nationality had their own room where they could speak their native language. In his room, most of the Italians were roughly of the same age but a few had been there since 1951. They found the English food the most difficult problem. Some just couldn't eat it. (10 mins)They bought a gas ring to cook their own pasta, that they had brought from Italy, in order to survive. They walked to work in the brick yards to save money, although a bus was offered. Later they bought bicycles. There was an interpreter to explain how they were to do their work. Hand stacking of 404 bricks on to trolley for conveying to kiln chambers. (15 mins)He had to fight for a job as a well-paid setter. There were evening classes in Bedford at Mander College on English for foreigners but he did not attend as he thought he would be returning to Italy after the contract. The English workers resented the fact that there were foreign workers there because they felt that work was being taken from English workers - they had not had it explained to them that the companies could not find enough English workers to do the unpleasant work there and that foreign workers had been encouraged to come over by free travel and contracts. (20 mins)Foreign workers took the insults of native English workers because they did not understand what was being said but knew that there was resentment. Earned £7 a week, at first, for 9 ½ hours days. £9 on nights shift. Paid £1 per week for hostel accommodation and half-board. He lived at hostel for 4 months then found a room in a house in Bedford owned by a Pole. £2 per shared room (£1 per person). They were able to cook Italian food. (25 mins)After one year, his wife from Italy came over and they went to live with a man from their home town. £2.50 for a room and shared kitchen and bathroom. After a while they bought their own house with his brother and took the upstairs part. Later the brother sold them his share. They were there from the 1960s t0 1983. There were quite a few Italians in the area. Had children. Wife worked as a c0llege cleaner. She had worked at the Meltis sweets fatory but did not like it there. (30 mins)Worked in the brick works for 37 years before retiring (27 years at Kempston; 10 years at Stewartby). Got his 25 years gold watch. END OF SIDE A (00 mins)Likes living here, except the weather. People respect you and public servants treat you well, and help you, unlike Italians in public offices who are rude to their clients. Now spends his life on his allotment, gardening. Occasionally sees old work friends. His wife has returned on visits to Italy more than he, but he went five years ago. (05 mins)His old family plot of land is overgrown with trees and not worked but his family home is still there and they go to there when on holiday in Italy. He has no intention of moving back to Italy. He had his children and grandchildren here and feels more English than Italian. (10 mins)End of Side B END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 100 mins

12 Dicember 2001

From: 1925 To: 2001

English. + Italian

item

Mussolini,
Fletton, Crown & Crowhurst Brick Company Limited,
Meltis Limited,
Marston Valley Brickworks,
London Brick Company

brick worker, Italians, agricultural land, farm worker, hens, eggs, Christmas, sheep, MIGRATION, EDUCATION, shepherd, fishing, child labour, World War Two, Germans, Americans, singing, dancing, harvesting, lodging houses, Hungarians, Poles, food, bicycles, interpreter, Bedford Mander College, wages/conditions, HOUSING, domestic servant, watches, allotments, Busso, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Naples, Milan (Province), Kempston Hardwick, BEDFORD, KEMPSTON, STEWARTBY