AP WMS 8(2) s1 f01 v1 e1

Brian Lawson of Leigh, former textile mill manager, discusses the textile industry, comparing conditions in the past with conditions in the present. Themes discussed include: holiday pay/allowance and work related illness. Recorded on the 25 August, 1981.

Audio description below: 

Continuing on the conditions of employment.  The material as it became less dirty, of course, became more easy to work with and clean as the atmosphere became cleaner, but it was always noisy and as I say, before it was hot and clammy and the machinery was very, very close together, there must have been a claustrophobic atmosphere about the place, if you got behind machinery, the next machine was not a yard away, but a foot away and these were the conditions.  The floors were probably flag floors in the early days, wooden floors in the spinning room and people worked in their bare feet in the spinning room as it was so warm, and there was oil all over everywhere that the floors were impregnated with oil because it was all mule spinning in those days, they worked in their bare feet and very lightly clothed because of the heat and the amount of work they had to do.  There were no canteen facilities, they had to bring their own food and brew their own cup of tea at lunchtime, there was not tea break in the morning or no tea break in the afternoon, they had to work through and just had a snack when they stopped for an hour at lunchtime and a breakfast, I think they stopped somewhere round about half past seven to eight and it was always common to see the daughter of the spinner bringing his breakfast in.  He would go to the gate and collect his tin and his sandwiches and his tea and this was quite a common occurrence.  Then they would work straight through ‘till half past five and that would be as I say, for five and a half days a week.  So it was pretty hectic really, on top of all that of course they had to get …. They were on piece work so they had to get a lot of material through to make anything like a wage, you know.

WAS THERE ANY FORM OF SICKNESS BENEFIT AT THE TIME?

No, if you were off sick you weren’t paid.  I really don’t … Mind you the sickness benefit it wasn’t an industrial thing, it was a country … a government run thing and I’m not sure quite when the, when it started, that obviously can be found out, there’s nothing difficult in that, but there was nothing from the factory.

DID THEY HAVE ANY HOLIDAYS?

They had what was known as wakes weeks, this has come from the textile industry really.  Each district closed for a week in summer.  In other words, Bolton would have a certain week, Leigh would have a certain week, Oldham would have a certain week, Rochdale would have a certain week, Bury would have a certain week and this stretched through about ten weeks of summer.  This was because places like Blackpool and Morecambe and Southport couldn’t cope with people going on their holidays, they couldn’t cope with people coming all at once, it had to be spread over a period, because so many people went to Blackpool for their holidays that they had to, the textile towns had to stagger their weeks holiday.

WAS THAT A CONSCIOUS DECISION?

That was a conscious decision and that’s how wakes weeks started, and they still do today.

WHATS THE TERM DERIVED FROM?

Well, a wakes is a fair isn’t it, it’s a Lancashire term for a fair, in other words we used to say the fair is, you know, the fair is coming round into the town, it was called the wakes, so of course I suppose it was a celebration time, it was time for a bit of a change, you know, so they called it wakes week.

WHEN DID THE WAKES WEEK START?

Usually Bolton were about the first and it used to start about the last week in June, middle to the last week in June was the first and it would end round about Manchester holidays was mid-August.  So it stretched over all July, half of June and all July and half of August probably and that was the holiday.

WHAT YEAR DID THEY START PRACTISING THIS?

I don’t know, I couldn’t say really.  I presume it would be, it sounds to me something like after the first world war, I think that was the start of times when, you know, they were enjoying life, you know.  Then again after the war times were busy and then I think it was a bit affluent and this is what they organised.

DID THEY GET PAID FOR THE WEEKS HOLIDAY?

They used to have what is called holiday pay.  They didn’t get paid in a sense, it was so much deducted from every week’s pay, not deducted, that’s wrong terminology, a percentage was added to each week’s pay, but not paid to them, it was put to one side.  In other words, you got your wage and then a small percentage would be reckoned up and put at one side for you, they didn’t take it off your weekly wage and of course when holiday time came they would pay you for that, holiday pay and it represented roughly a week’s pay, so it was really paid for.  Then of course they would have a couple of days in September, Christmas Day and they used to work Boxing Day.  They had Christmas Day, New Years day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, that was the only holidays they got, they’d no August Bank Holiday, they had no Spring Bank Holiday, they got about ten days holiday a year, that was all.  Five were taken at once at the wakes week and the other five were spread over the rest of the year, that was the holiday time between two wars roughly.  So it was a bit hard, we were always the last to do any changing.  As modern industry was built in the town, they were leaders in this sort of thing, you know, they were leaders in welfare, canteen facilities, better holidays and of course we followed as trade unions became stronger and better organised and then of course things did change slowly and now I think as far as holidays and conditions are, quite good, I don’t think they are as good as any other industry really.

WHAT WERE CONDITIONS LIKE AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR?

After the second world war were very similar.  It took the second world war really to bring about changes.  The social changes when a five day week was introduced.

WHY WAS THAT BROUGHT IN?

Because people said it wasn’t, you know, longer weekends, it was a social thing, as well as anything.  The mining industry was the first to introduce five days, they used to do five and a half and of course they was

fairly strong even then and they got nationalised after the war and introduced a five day working week and from then on of course, that became the norm.  I think that was one of the best things to come, I think people realised that leisure was about and you know they sort of felt that the weekends were worth having, because it was a bit difficult and they got home you know, round about twelve o’clock every Saturday the man and woman, because they did employ a tremendous amount of female labour in the textile industry and they must have got fairly tired and trying to get organised by Saturday tea time, this was, you know, the sort of they had to go out and do their shopping then, there was not sort of nipping out and going to the shop or anything like that, the gates were locked, you couldn’t get in and out and of course that was the reason of course shops stayed open Saturday night, because people worked a lot, you know, to Saturday afternoon and they stayed open to get the business you see.

WHAT ARE CONDITIONS LIKE NOW IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY?

In the mill?  They’re very good indeed.  Along with technical innovation on machinery, had come a great demand for cleanliness, for safety and there are very strict regulations regarding noise, regarding dust and regarding safety, as of course has everywhere else.  The health and safety act has really brought management you know, right on to its toes it really has now to start and think seriously.

WHEN DID THIS COME OUT?

The last five years, the health and safety act at work, about 1974, is it something like that, 75, that’s when its really come nigh impossible to allow machinery on which is dangerous in any form.

WAS THERE MUCH ILLNESS THROUGH CONDITIONS AT THE MILL?

There was industrial disease, there is byssinosis it’s called.

WHAT’S THAT?

That is dust on the chest, you know, it’s a chest complaint caused by the dust in cotton.

AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT THEM?

Oh, it makes it very difficult to breath.  There are stages what they call percentages, you know of the problem and you can have a slight attack and the compensation now is quite high for people who are discovered to have byssinosis and it doesn’t seem to affect them until later in life, you know, so claims are coming through fairly thick and fast at the moment.

WHAT WAS PEOPLE’S HEARING LIKE?

Again, I think it’s a difficult one.  Hearing I think deteriorates anyway with age, but it must have been, they must have felt that … I can’t really say, I never heard anybody saying, well I’ve gone deaf because I worked in the textile industry but I think a lot of people’s hearing must have been impaired slightly by it and I think if we can avoid it lets avoid it, I think anything we can do in that way.  

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