Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1205/150
  • Title
    Male. Bricklayer at London Brick brickworks, Stewartby, building kilns. b. 19.09.1917 SIDE A (00 mins)Born and raised in Cranfield. One brother. Father worked for his father, running a daily bus service in the 1920s from Cranfield to Bedford but when money was tight moved to working at Stewartby for London Brick. Co. as a driver, on the staff, driving Directors, including Bill Radcliff and Sir Malcom Stewart. Interviewee was a keen athlete as a boy and young man, running for Cranfield School and for London Brick Athletics Club. (05 mins)Reflections on the behaviour of children nowadays and on growing crime. (10 mins)Police activities locally at time of interview. When he was a child, everybody knew the local policeman and he knew everybody in the village. Corporal punishment in those days. Only had the cane once at school. Had private piano lessons once a week until he was 16. Lived in Bourne End, 2 miles from school. (15 mins)Stayed at same elementary school in Cranfield until he was 14. 30 in a class. 180 all together. 4 classes (120) in the Junior/Elementary and a separate Infants with 60. Final two years in the top room, the big room upstairs, the final one with the headmaster. First job was threshing corn for farms in the area for five months. Then Dad got me a job at London Brick Company on the presses. Travelled to work on his bicycle. 30 presses in No. 1 shed. Had to get permission to go to the toilet. Someone had to take your place on the belt delivering the green bricks. (20 mins)Earned 14 shillings and 10 pence (74p), the first week. Mother had most of it for housekeeping. After 3 months, transferred to a gang of bricklayers (3 men) as an apprentice. They built CK1 kiln (6 or 7 months). Had to dig 7 foot foundations. (25 mins)Used to lay 200/300 bricks a day until you got used to it. Didn't get full rte until her was 21: £3 a week (1s.8d an hour), when a bricklayer's labourer got £2.2s (1934). When CK3 was built, he had 142 men working on that for 5 months. 36 bricklayers in the daytime and a night gang (10-hour shift) getting mortar ready and bricks on to the site. Gave up smoking in 1949. (30 mins)48-hour week: 7.30am - 5pm, Mon to Fri. Piecework. (32 mins)End of Side A SideB (00mins) Gangs of 6 bricklayers / 6 labourers. 2000 bricks a day laid. 4000 bricks to an arch. He was unpopular at beginning but was scrupulously fair. Also built offices and houses for brick works. (05 mins)Pug is used in place of place of cement for building a kiln. Pug is green bricks and burnt brick dust. When building chimneys for the kilns, you weakened the mortar slightly as you got higher, to weaken it, so that it is strong at the bottom and every 50ft it gets weaker, so that it "gives" in the wind, rather than crack.Built 4 kilns at Calvert in 1959. Saw the Coronation chimneys and kiln that he had built pulled down in later years. He felt awful. (10 mins)Old bricks from felled buildings used for hardcore foundations. Built No. 22 kiln at Stewartby, the last one to be built. Left London Brick while building No. 9 kiln at Bletchley. (15 mins)Fed up with management failures and not being made a Staff member after 36 years' service. He earned less than the bricklayers he was managing. Decided to take a chance on doing odd bricklaying jobs outside the brickworks. (20 mins)Bought a piece of land in 1951 and started to build a bungalow in 1951 au Up[per Shelton, Marston, next to the school. Took 16 months, assisted by his wife and a few mates. Lived in it for 33 years. (25 mins)Remembers his father driving a steam roller past their house at 5 mph, in 1927(?) and a man with a flag walking in front. Father was in Royal Horse Artillery in Germany during First World War. Mother was a cook at a big house in Biddenham, when she met her husband to be. Mother and father both died when aged 83. Mother was very harsh with her son.Remembers building a display arch of bricks for the annual Olympia show in London, for London Brick. (30 mins)Worked on adding extensions to houses, after London Brick. Did a lot of work for Charles Wells Brewery, Beds. County Council and Bedford Borough over 16 years. (32 mins)End of Side B.CONTINUED ON ST150C2 Side A (00 mins)Missed out on London Brick Co. pension by leaving after 36 years. Reflections on the decline of the brick industry in Bedfordshire. Remembers living in an LBC house in Stewartby for 7 years. 9 shilling (45p) a week rent. (05 mins)He never got a presentation wristwatch for 25 years service. Was kept at brickworks until 1942 when he was called up for the armed forces. Had 4 ½ years in the Royal Engineers. (10 mins)Wartime testing of bomb shelters, 1941/42 in Field 99. An old colonel used to come and blow do experimental explosions. After army initial training in Preston, moved to Chatham and then to India. (15 mins)Experiences on Royal Naval ship to Hong Kong. Valued his experience of India. (20 mins)Increasing affluence of most people now compared with 1930s. (26 mins)End of Side A.END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 85 mins.
  • Date free text
    9 August 2002
  • Production date
    From: 1915 To: 2002
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    item
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