Z1205/228

Male. Second-generation brickworks employee. Office worker. b. 18.08.1938 SIDE A (00 mins)Born in Aspley Guise. Mother came from Woburn Sands and Ramsey, Cambridgeshire. Younger brother. Father came to work in A.E.Lamb's Skew Bridge brickyards at Bletchley, after mechanisation of agriculture in the Fens (he was a horseman). (05 mins)Father kept Dutch rabbits. Wartime reliance on keeping chickens for eggs and rabbits for meat. A cockerel for Christmas meal. Father also showed chrysanthemums which he grew in a greenhouse. (10 mins)Every village to have an annual show (including flowers and vegetables). Marston Valley Brick Company used to have one. Father worked in chambers in temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Occasional Saturday morning visits to work with Father at Ridgmont. After 12 years' setting bricks, Father became a charge hand then production foreman until his retirement in 1974. Worked there 39 years, missing his clay workers' medal by 6months. Retired to Sir Malcolm Stewart bungalows in Stewartby. Interviewee started as office junior at Marston Valley brickworks and worked up to wages clerk, after schooling at Aspley Guise primary and Woburn Sands secondary Modern schools. (15 mins)School work. Left school at fifteen. First wage, in August 1953, was £2 a week. After 6 months, he got £2.12s. 6d. (£6.62 ½ p). The range of foremen on duty at the brickworks. (20 mins)Post-Second World War, there were men working in offices who had had wartime commissions as officers and some of whom liked to be referred to by their former rank. Ex-prisoners of war and European ex-patriots working in brickworks in late 1940s, then, from 1951 onwards, Italian workers. Quite a friendly atmosphere in the works department. (25 mins)Formal dress code in the offices. Overmanning at brickworks. Factory brass band in the 1950s. Good cornet players automatically got a job at the works. (30 mins)Mr. Crossland was Director of Music. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Band played locally and entered brass band competitions including the National competition at Belle Vue, Manchester. 3 dining rooms at Ridgmont canteen, newly-built in 1950s: main dining room for production workers, smaller one for staff, and Managers' dining room. Up to 3000 employees at one time. As the factory wound down, the managers joined other staff in one canteen and workers in the other one. (05 mins)Charge Hands ate with the workers; foreman ate with the managers. Managers who needed bricks for their own use would order the lowest-quality bricks and have the best-quality bricks delivered. Personal contact was the biggest factor when applying for a job. (10mins)Promotion within the brick works. 1700 people working at Ridgmont Works and 800 at Marston Works. 20-30 women working on production in early 1950s. (15 mins)A lot of women worked in offices and the canteen. Finally, the remaining women worked in a gang producing special bricks. (20 mins)Women on production work were not given positions of responsibility. Craft differentiation in relation to pay rates. Unionisation. (25 mins)Marston Valley staff were paid lower than London Brick Co. workers until the merger. Dangerous work conditions. Little emphasis on safety. (30 mins)Work on wages and statistics (32 mins)End of Side B CONTINUED ON CS228C2 SIDE A (00 min)Calculating wages before calculators, using printed tables. Piecework rates and bonuses per 1000 bricks. Up to 30 wages clerks when he started, working by hand, at desks. Times cards collected and analysed on Wednesdays, cash counted and parcelled at the bank on Thursdays, (collected and distributed on Fridays). (05 mins)Transfer of pay, or part-pay to bank accounts began in mid-1960s for wage staff and computers introduced in 1984-85. Unix system. Manual work continued with the use of calculators. (10 mins)Introduction of fork-lift trucks led to reduction in numbers of workers (1966). Adaptation of chambers to facilitate trucks. Office romance. (15 mins)London brick takeover of Marston Valley company. Kept his job but depressing time. He was responsible for checking that the clocking-on machines were working and collecting money from the "fruit machines" (cash gambling "one-armed bandits") in the worker's clubs. (20 mins)Profits from "fruit machines" supported social club. Company Savings Scheme and Premium Bond bonus. (25 mins)Worked at Ridgmont for 28 years. (32 mins)End of Side A ORIGINAL INTERVIEW 90 mins.

16 June 2003

From: 1935 To: 2003

item

London Brick Company,
Hanson Brick Limited,
Marston Valley Brick Company Limited

brick worker, clerk, rabbits, Christmas, flowers, Institute of Clayworkers, Sir Malcolm Stewart Trust, wages/conditions, World War Two, prisoners of war, Italians, MUSIC, class issues, employment of women, HEALTH & SAFETY, sexuality, gambling, STEWARTBY, ASPLEY GUISE, WOBURN SANDS, Ramsey, Bletchley, RIDGMONT