X962/R1

Interview of Maureen Gurney. Born Heath and Reach, Leighton Buzzard, 1943. Her mother worked in the sand quarry drying sheds. Date of interview: 31 January 2007 Interviewed by: Rachel Bond

1943-c1972

From: 1943 To: 1972

(00 min.) The informant was born in Thomas Street. The Street is a private road still unmade today. She lived there until she got married. The house she lived in was two up two down and an outside toilet. Her mother worked with two other women at Beds Silica Sand Mines Ltd in the drying sheds; sorting and sewing hessian sacks ready to be refilled. Her father was a shoe repairer in his shop in Church Street. Her mother’s aunt Agnes and her husband Harold worked in the Sand Industry, at Fox Corner, Sheep Lane. He drove a grab line; to get the sand from pit to fill containers. Worked there most of his life. (5 min.) Her mother worked there from when she was 36 (in 1948) until retirement. Informant describes the drying sheds as made of corrugated iron/tin, with drying machines in one area, loading bay in another with big doors to let lorries in. Men worked there to load sands into sacks and then on to lorries. The sheds were big and very cold in winter. The doors were shut at night-time only. Mice ran freely in there and chewed the sacks; it was her mother and her friend’s job to repair hundreds of hessian sacks with big needles and an industrial sewing machine. Mentions paper sacks. (10 min.) The industrial process was as such that there were empty sacks arriving daily, which were stacked in piles. The three women checked each one, mended it if necessary and tied them in bundles. The men collected them, took them to the filling area to be refilled with sand to be delivered. Working hours were based on gender; women started at nine am, had mid morning break, made tea for all, men collected it and took it to their area of work. Women did washing up, using water brought from home, (no running water in the sheds, or at informant’s house; there was a tap outside her house, her mother collected a full kettle or a bucket on her way to work). At 12, women went home to prepare lunch; went back to work at 2 pm, finished at 4pm. Men started at 8 am stopped at 1 pm for lunch, went home to eat. Then back to work at 2pm. Men worked until 5 pm, if there was overtime worked until 6 pm. (15 min.) Informant’s mother and colleagues wore heavy trousers, jumper and a fitted jacket in winter and a scarf tied at the front to cover hair from sand, on their hands fingerless mittens. School ended at 3.30, informant went to drying sheds until 4pm in order to go home with her mother. This was not officially allowed, but went on from when she was 5 to 11 years old. She watched the women working, it was a friendly place; everyone knew each other and sometimes she went to have look at the men bagging the sand. It was very dusty area, if the wind was blowing women did not put the washing out to dry. The little railway was just behind the informant’s house, the pit was in Reach Lane bordering on Gig Lane. (20 min.) In the summer holidays the informant and other children living in the area would use the disused quarry near the house as a playground, by taking her mothers old clothes to be used as a mat to slide down to the bottom of the quarry. This was all overgrown with plants and trees, willows growing in the pond were used to climb on as well as an old rusty crane left there. (25 min.) They also went swimming in the smaller ponds of disused Stone Lane Quarry. They were not supposed to do that but Frank Walpole partly owned the quarry and checked that no child was trespassing on working areas. They also played hide and seek in the cereal fields. Since then the sandpits have grown immensely; the one near Thomas Street has expanded to Overend Green as well as the Bryant’s Row pit. All the fields in between have disappeared. Informant wishes that the disused quarry could be turned into leisure parks. The drying sheds are no longer there. The process of drying has changed now. The lovely places where she played as child are no longer lovely they are all fenced off. (30 min.) End of interview Content Summary by Carmela Semeraro (9 May 2008)

Duration: 30 minutes. 339,465KB.

Wave Sound file

item

Gurney, Maureen,
Bedfordshire Silica Sand Mines Ltd,
Walpole, Frank,
Bond, Rachel

Heath & Reach Thomas Street, Leighton Buzzard Church Street, sand, employment of women, CHILDREN, childhood memories, games, shoemaker, quarries, Heath & Reach Reach Lane