AP WMS 13(1) s1 f01 v1 e1

James Eckersley from Leigh discussing working life and conditions at the Harrison McGregor's, a firm who specialised in making agricultural machinery. James started working for them in 1925.  Themes discussed include: poor working conditions. Recorded on the 7 October 1981.

Audio description below: 

Now this was in 1925 and we still lived on Wigan Road we went down to live in Wigan Road uhh in the meantime and that’s when I first started at Harrison McGregor’s. I couldn’t get a uhh, there wasn’t much work knocking around, and as I say my mother wanted me to be a dress designer… soft job that. So I took this uhh, I never wanted to go bear in mind cos I’ve been in there many times with me Dad’s dinner and I thought what horrible state of affairs this you know. So I started there and I had uhh, I was there from 1925 to 1937. And they were the bleakest and the unhappiest years of my life actually.

WHY?

From a work point. Well… let’s take it from the beginning, in the first place the man who owned the place was called Thomas Darwell Harrison, TD Harrison and he had a brother called Bill Harrison who was a big man at the Buchannon’s Whiskey distillery in Scotland. And I’m not quite sure but I think he married one of the McGregor’s – this is how the Harrison’s and the McGregor’s came together, this is the story I was told. But he was an old man then and he was a magistrate, but of course magistrates can sometimes get away with things that nobody else can. But the works itself was a monstrosity in every shape or form. They were very old buildings, very old, and they were rat infested, I should say was it 1925..? When I went in 1925 it was one of the only places I know that was lit by gas, it were gas lit in 1925. And the gas jets were on the wall and I don’t remember ever seeing a full mantle… they all had holes in them, somebody had punched a hole in some. And the work, if you worked away from the gas jet, away from the gas, you had to have a candle. Fella’s were working with candles to see the bolts, if they’re putting the bolt through the hole they had to have candles. Now also the sanitation arrangements were atrocious. They were, they must have been better in Charles Dickens’ time. The toilet’s themselves, they were a series of cubicles with no doors on and there was a flush cistern on top and I used to flush from one end to the other.. well it was right funny this. The funny part about it was some of the lads were a bit gallus, when it started to flush and someone happened to be picking  a horse out uhh further down out of a newspaper, they used to light the paper you see. Well the fella that was well it weren’t very long before he got a hot tip.

*LAUGHING*

Well he used to jump up with all the steam, this happened many many times. But these were the good toilets, because in the moulding department further down they all sat on, all together on a communal bench sort of thing. And they were like that in 37’ when I left. All these years, now normally the fellas wouldn’t stand for that in them days you know. And there was another thing which was uhh a terrible thing as well.  Uhh everybody had mechanical transport in those days, all had motors, well Listers were very popular. Well up to 37 when I left, they still had fellas pushing [boardies] through the shop on lines. Now they had a big what they’d call a field where they used put all the spare parts, well that was right down the hill, and it was on the canal bank. Now if you went down in a morning and you had a job given to you and you went down and you marked all the job up you see. Put your name on, the idea was, the board you used to go down, pick it up, and bring it back. But it wasn’t as easy as that, cos you’d be with the fifth customer.. so if you put your name on first thing in a morning you might not get your material till the afternoon. So this and you’re supposed to be on piece work… this was another thing. And they did nothing at all about it.

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