Voices from the Factory Floor / Lleisiau O Lawr Y Ffatri

VOICES FROM THE FACTORY FLOOR / LLEISIAU O LAWR Y FFATRI Dolgarrog Aluminium (1961-1975, with gaps) Also Bacons Toys, Llanrwst (1959-61), Danline, Llanrwst and Hotpoint, Llandudno Interviewee: VN003 Yvonne Stevens Date: 25: 11: 013 Interviewer: Kate Sullivan on behalf of Women’s Archive Wales 00:00 Okay, Yvonne, could you start then by giving me your name and date of birth? Yeah, my full name is Margaret Yvonne Stevens. Date of birth is 30th of the 10th, ‘44. Lovely. So could you tell me a little bit about your background, where you were born, your parents. Well, I was born in Llanrwst, born on an estate called Cae Person Person, and my mother was named Emma and my father was named Harry, Harry Lamale, he had a, well, he wasn't French but his father was French, they've both died now. My father died when I was, dunno, when I was sixteen I think. And my mother died about nine, ten years ago. 01.02 What did your parents do? My mother was a waitress in hotels and my father was in the army, and then from the army he went to the lead mines, and he died then, died after the lead mines. So the lead mines were in Llanrwst? In Llanrwst, yeah. When did they close? Oh, heck, in the 50s, about '52, I think, '53, something like that. 1 Do you have brothers or sisters? Yeah, I have one brother, one sister died and I've got another sister, so there's one brother and one sister now. And are they all in Llanrwst? All in Llanrwst yeah, all the family's in Llanrwst. What did your brother and sister do? My brother's a butcher in Llanrwst and my sister, she was a waitress and cleaner in hotels, and she's still a cleaner in British Legion club in Llanrwst now, she's still a cleaner there. I worked there, but I worked there for twenty-three years but I retired, I retired three years ago. So did you work with your sister? I did, yeah. She's still working. 02:10 Where did you go to school? In Llanrwst, it's a, well, we called it Central School, now it's called Bro Gwydir school for little, well, I left school there as well, I went from age three or four, or whatever it was, well it wasn't three or four, it was five or six I think, and I finished there as well, at fifteen. So same school all the way up, yeah. They hadn't built the new one, you know, when you go to the bigger school from eleven isn't it, eleven or twelve, I think. So why did you leave school? Oh, I just wanted to. We didn't have any opportunity to go anywhere, you know, we were going to a factory. We wanted to go to Dolgarrog, and I went into the factory in, the toy factory, and I was there for, I think it was about eighteen months, you couldn't start Dolgarrog until you were about seventeen. And that was on days and when you were eighteen you could go on shifts. So I started there, then. How old were you when you went to the toy factory? Fifteen, yeah, fifteen. And that was your first job? My first job, yeah. Did you have an interview? No, no. It was just ask, ask if there were any jobs going, available, and they just showed you how to paint and all that, you know. Who did you ask? 2 Um, there was a foreman there called Mr Freshwater, he just told me to come back and gave us a job, like that it was then. 03:47 How did you feel going to your first job? Oh, I thought it was brilliant. It was absolutely brilliant, a nice atmosphere there. And the paint room was quite big and I worked with elderly people, I called them Aunty Lena and Aunty Martha. Your colleagues? Yeah, working there with them, we had the radio on, really good. So how many of your worked there? Oh, there was about four of us. And then, I'd say about fifty-odd, about thirty to fifty, something like that, people. All women? No, young lads as well, young lads as well when I was there. Most of the young lads have died now. What did the men do? They weren't men, it was all young lads, up to eighteen. So what did they do? Their jobs was in the saw-mill, sawing the dolls houses out, oh, what do you call it, cutting it out, and then it goes upstairs to get assembled, then it goes from the assembly room to the spray room, cos they'd made them out of, what was it, hardboard I think, hardboard, that's what they were made of. They went to the spray room and these lads were spraying them and then they went to the paint room where we were. 05:09 What was your job? Painter, we called it, painter. So you were painting the toys? I was painting the toys, yeah. And did you have training? No, we didn't, no, if we made a mistake, it would have to be rejected. And then you'd get a dab hand at it then, you know, it was really nice, really good. And, well, I don't think there's any around, not for me to know, it was a shame, really, I'd like to see a toy now of it, like a dolls house or a board and easel, or a skipping rope, or whatever. There's none around, nobody had them then, you see, nobody bought them, we didn't, well, we couldn't afford it, cos my mother was a widow, 'cos my dad died when I 3 started the toy factory. And my brother, he was only two when my dad died. So I was the only one that was going to work, you know, so we didn't have any cameras or anything like that, you know. So the money that we had, don't ask me how much money I was having, I can't remember that. 06:11 Do you remember the money going to your family? To my mam, yeah, to my mother. Did you keep any for yourself? Yeah, cos I was smoking. I was a smoker. Before you went to the factory or after? Before, yeah, before. In school. Did all the women smoke? Yeah, they did, yeah. So the factory made toys, were they exported? Yeah, they were. Where did they go? Oh, heck, there was a packing room as well and they, well, everywhere, all over, don't ask me where, I couldn't tell you where. But they were exported. But the local people didn't buy them? Not round here, no, there was nothing round here then, there was no shops, we've got toy shops here now, couple of toy shops, but there weren't nothing like that in Llanrwst then, you know, when the factory was open, it was all going out of Llanrwst, you know, not in Llanrwst, wherever the shops were. 07:12 Could you describe a working day? Did you have to clock in, for instance? No, you didn't have to clock in, no. What time did you start work? Half past eight and finished five. Did you have breaks? Yeah, we had a break in the morning and an hour for dinner. And as I lived up the road, I used to go home for dinner. Was there a canteen? 4 No, no, nothing like that, no. Took our sandwiches if we wanted sandwiches or a flask. So they didn't provide any coffee or tea? No, nothing like that, no. Do you remember what your wages were? I can't remember, you know, no. I can't remember, it couldn't have been much, definitely not, about nine shillings perhaps, nine shillings, something like that. What was the factory like? Oh, it was an old building, and it was a bit creaky, you know, people were working upstairs, like, in the assembly room, and big and wooden stairs to come down, health and safety, would have been shut down by now. Did they take over an old . To tell you the truth, I don't know, I think it started around about 1950, you know, 1949-50, it was there, because the building was there, so what the building was before that I can't remember. But it was an old stone building but it was all rickety- rackety, rooms here and rooms there, you know. 09:09 Was it cold? Yeah, very cold, but we did have electric wall heaters, little wall heaters, you know. And was it light enough to work? Yeah, yeah, in places where we needed to be, you know, in the paint room we wanted a lot of light, there was a lot of light coming from the sky-light, and something like that, you know, yeah, there was light, but only a couple of bulbs hanging down. So in the toy factory, did you do the same job the whole time? The whole time, yeah. I was employed as a painter, in the paint room. Were there ever any accidents or health and safety issues? There was a couple of accidents in the saw mill, you know, somebody had a finger off or something like that, you know, these young lads, you know.

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