THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON 12TH DECEMBER 2000 AT 14 STONEYBANK ROAD, EARBY. THE INFORMANT IS FRED INMAN AND THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Now then Fred, what year were you born?
R-1908.
What’s your full name?
R-Fred Inman.
Not Frederick? You were christened Fred?
R-Yes.
So you were born in 1908 and when’s your birthday?
R-19th December.
So you’re 92 this month?
R-Yes.
What was your father’s name?
R-Parkinson Inman.
What did he do for a living?
R-He worked at t’mill biggest part of his life and then he bought some land and started a poultry farm. Then when t’war came on it got too much for him and he selled out.
What was your mother’s full name?
R-Elizabeth Turner.
Her maiden name was Turner.
R-Yes, Turner.
Where was she born?
R-Earby.
R-And where was your father born?
R-Someweer up in’t Dales. To tell you’t truth he, me father was one of a big family and his father were a journeyman, do they call ‘em journeyman? Where they were building any reservoirs, any railways, anything, and there were’t bit of money theer and he were theer.
Like a navvy? [I was too quick here, the granddad was a mason/builder.]
R-I think there were about ten on ‘em, ten of a family.
Ten children.
R-And he said, and me aunty said t’same tale, that when they were sixteen, they’d to get away. And t’cotton trade were good I’ Lancashire and ever so many came over to Lancashire into t’cotton trade, never been known before for any o’t Inman family to go into t’cotton trade.
Have you any idea when your father was born? Roughly. When did he die?
R-It’d be t’1950’s
Near enough, say it were 1955, how old was he when he died?
R-76 or 77.
So he’d be born in about 1880, so it would be sometime like just before 1900, between 1895 and 1900 when he come down to, did he come to Earby at first?
R-He came to Barlick at first.
Where did he work at Barlick?
R-In one o’t weaving mills, I don’t know which it were. An er, were it on Rainhall road, nearly at t’bottom there were a shop and I think it were a lodging house and all and he lodged theer. And then he had a sister came over, me Aunt Maggie and she got wed and me father came to live in Earby and lived with them. And he started working in Earby.
Where did he work in Earby?
R-Well he worked at that Earby Manufacturing Company for a while and then he went from theer to B&W Hartley’s [Bracewell and William Hartley]and then he went from theer to Birley’s, Albion Mill.
Birley’s was Albion, Earby manufacturing Company were, which shed was that?
R-Hugh Currer’s, it were t’far end of t’Big Mill.
Victoria, Big Mill. Yes, and what was the other one you said he worked, you said he worked at Birley’s, Earby Manufacturing and another one you said?
R-B&W Hartley’s on’t New Road.
So that’d be Brook Shed was it or was it t’back end of Big Mill?
R-Brook Shed.
So you were brought up in Earby?
R-Yes.
You were born in Earby?
R-Yes.
So you were born in 1908. Whereabouts were you born?
R-I think it were in Albion Street. Then what I’m going to say, there’s really `no long livers on’t Inman side. Me grandma on’t Turner side she lived to be about 91, and that were a big achievement then. And er, I have a cousin, she’ll be about 95 now and quite capable of knocking about and then I had another cousin, she died two years sin’ and she were 97, and er, then there’s another cousin and she’ll be about 94. A few o’t Turner lot what lived to a good age.
Which house can you remember from your earliest remembrance?
R-Lincoln Road in Earby. It were a ,they were newly built, two down and two up.
Terraced houses?
R-Yes, terraced, built on to t’end of another row and er, that were t’first time I can remember living anywheer.
And how big a family of you were there?
R-There were only two on us, me brother and me.
What’s your brother called?
R-He were called Melbourne.
That’s a good name init! That house, so you’ll remember that house before t’first world war because you were born in 1908. Well just let me ask you some questions about the house. Just er, because nowadays you see, people don’t know anything about living conditions then. Did you have any carpets?
R-No, only rugs what me mother pegged, pegged rugs.
Sand on the floor?
R-No we hadn’t sand on t’floor we had oilcloth.
So it wasn’t a flagged floor, it were wooden floors wi’ oilcloth. [linoleum] How about curtains?
R-Of they had some fancy lace curtains up, they weren’t thick curtains, lace, they nearly all had lace curtain in them days I think.
How about roller blinds?
R-There were roller blinds up and these lace curtains allus pulled back. Roller blinds yes.
Coal fires?
R-Coal fires, oven.
No gas?
R-Yes there were gas.
Did you have gas lighting?
R-Yes, gas lighting.
So you wouldn’t use candles? Did you go to bed wi’ candles?
R-Yes, there were no gas upstairs.
Just gas upstairs.
R-Just gas in one room. There were only like t’gas in’t house, in’t living room, it had a mantle, that in’t kitchen were a burner.
Just a flare, just a fishtail.
R-Yes. And there were no gas upstairs.
So there’d be no hot water apart from, you’d have a side boiler.
R-There were a side boiler but er, I think there were a back boiler. Aye, we had hot water on’t tap in’t kitchen. Aye there were, there must have been a back boiler because I can remember me mother like cleaning it at underneath, sweeping it out. And then there were’t old side oven what’s never been beat yet.
Aye, that’s it. How about bathroom?
R-No bathroom.
Tin bath in’t front o’t fire?
R-No there were a bath in’t kitchen and it had a lid on and it were used for a, put stuff on like when it weren’t in use. And er me mother used to have to put a hoosepipe onto t’hot water tap to run into t’bath, there were no taps on’t bath. And when we’d finished us bath, she used to have to empty it with a lading can, teem it down’t sink, you could do that but if you’d have run yer water from the bath in’t sink you’d have had to pay.
Is that right? You’d have had to pay more if you’d had a bath connected up to the drains. I’ve never heard that before. So was it a cast iron bath or a tin bath?
R-Cast iron. Two on us in at once, sometimes three.
Aye, I’ll bet you a pound it were Friday night!
R- Yes.
(Laughter) You know I’ve often wondered how t’sewage went on on a Friday night because every bugger in’t Northern Union had a bath on Friday night didn’t they! What sort of a carry on was there at home? I mean can you ever remember going hungry?
R-No I never remember going hungry.
Can you remember your dad being out of work?
R-No, he were allus in work as long as I knew him.
Did your mother work?
R-No.
So she stayed at home and looked after th’house?
R-Yes, and did a bit of washing for other folk and happen looked after a youngster for somebody what went to t’mill. ‘Course they were only coppers in them days if she did a bit of that, but coppers were coppers weren’t they.
Well aye, yes.
R- Aye, it were all right up theer.
And what age were you when you went to school?
R-five.
Which school did you go to?
R-Riley Street.
Were that a church school or a board school?
R- Chapel school.
Aye, Riley Street Methodists was it?
R-Yes.
Were your mother and father religious? Did they go to chapel?
R- No. Me mother she were religious up to happen getting wed and getting a family. Actually I’ve heard her tell about being a Sunday School teacher at t’church, were me mother. And er, that Turner family, she were very very strict were me grandma about religion. You hadn’t to do this at Sunday and you hadn’t to do that.
Were they church or chapel?
R-Church.
So, in 1908, you’d be six year old when the First World War started. Can you remember anything about the first world war starting, have you any remembrance of it.
R-Well I can remember them saying like there were a war on and then we used to see t’soldiers marching through Earby. And you know you used to think eeeh, if I were only a soldier like they are, smart, then next of owt you’d know somebody were, had got killed and I allus remember one thing, and we’d have got us behinds punched [kicked in Earby usage] if we’d been catched, there were a feller about t’middle o’t war, he got killed and he were fetched home, they fetched him home, and they had him in t’front room, they had a front room at their house a bit lower down. They’d a, you know, roller blinds and they didn’t fit up to t’sides and we used to go and, trying to look round at t’coffin. All you could see were some wood and a Union Jack on. We were trying to see if we could, peeping round, ‘cause there were allus a light on when there were owt like that, folks used to be going didn’t they, looking at ‘em.
And I’m right in saying aren’t I that they used to do the burials on a Saturday
Because people couldn’t afford to take time off work and they didn’t bury on Sunday so Saturday were the day for burials.
R-Yes.
So if somebody died on say the Saturday of one week they’d have ‘em to keep while the following Saturday, for a week. Of course in those days there was only one place to keep the body, and that was in the house wasn’t it?
R-That’s it.
You kept the body in the house. Well, by the end of the week and it was warm weather, you were getting a bit of a problem weren’t yer.
R-Oh aye, well it lasted a long while did that ‘cause me mother were in’t front room when she died, coffin were put in’t front room wi’ her in until burial day.
How long ago was that? When was that?
R-It’d be happen 52. Sommat like that.
Because I mean nowadays everybody’s divorced from death aren’t they, someone teks the body away and keeps it nice and smart and fresh and all the rest of it er, you know and lands it back for the funeral don’t they. You know you don’t have that problem.
R-We mentioned me dad being called Parkinson. Well that’s actually, Inman’s t’same, they aren’t gypsies, what do they call them other lot?
Romanies?
R-Romanies.
Is that where the name comes from?
R- Yes.
I didn’t know that!
R-And er, Inman family what I know, there were Parkinsons here and Parkinsons there you know, sons and, there’s bags on ‘em. I once were down at, south on me holidays, I got stung wi’ a bee on me neck. Eeeh I were poorly, so I went to t’doctors at t’morning after and they says oh, doctor can’t see you today, they’re booked up. I says well what hev I got to do about this sting I says I can’t walk unless t’wife’s hold on me? I were dizzy. And she says well go out of here and take t’first turn to your left when you get out there’s an Indian doctor, and perhaps he’ll put you in. So we went theer and she were a receptionist, an Indian receptionist dosta know and she says well are you prepared top wait while about half past twelve? I said aye well I’ll have to if I want to see a doctor. She says we’re very very busy but she says I’ll guarantee he’ll see you at half past twelve. And when I went in it were an Indian doctor and he asked me me name and I told him and he says Inman! Is there any Parkinsons in your family? I says yes, scores on ‘em. Yes he says, Romanies. He says I’ll bet your family, your father’s family were a big family weren’t it? I says yes. He says how many on ‘em went to work in’t mill? I said I can only remember me dad going to work in a mill. Yes he says, I’ll bet biggest part on ‘em worked on the land as gamekeepers and working for big houses doing maintenance work, he said they didn’t believe in going into a mill didn’t a Romany. And it were true were that.
Aye, that’s interesting that, yes. Funnily enough I was going to look it up last night but I got turned on to doing different things but I was going to look your name up and just see what the derivation of it was.
R-And when I look back, from what I can remember, me Uncle Billy were’t oldest, he didn’t stop locally when he came out, away from Keighley he went to Blackburn and he were like a stone mason and builder working for somebody else. Then me uncle Tom, he never went into t’mill, he was more or less on’t councils, outdoor worker and me uncle Jack and me uncle Ralph, they were all outdoor workers, they didn’t want to go into t’mill.
When you say your uncle Jack and your uncle Ralph, I mean were they from the Turner side or were they from your dad’s side?
R-Me dad’s side. But I were going to say, tell you, when t’girls left home when they were sixteen, their mother gave ‘em a silver threepenny bit, that’s all she could afford to give ‘em. She used to say if you don’t spend that you’ll never be without money. And that were what they were sent away from home on and they’d to make their way the best way they could into Earby and Barlick. I’ve heard me dad tell, him and me uncle Jack, they had two mile to walk when t’school loosed and at Friday they’d to go to a reservoir two mile away. They’d to catch me dad when he had t’money on him, when he got paid.
When you say they had to catch your dad, you mean your granddad.
R- Aye. He used to give them a guinea [£1-05p] and they’d have to take this money home else he’d never come home wi’ it. He’d booze it aye.
He’d booze it afore he got home.
R- I’ve heard me dad say he’d probably have a guinea for hissel. For booze, and then he’d expect me mother to keep all t’family off a guinea but they had a rough time I’ them days did big families hadn’t they.
You’ve no idea where in the Dales that was, where they lived?
R-Now then, I have it somewhere, I have his birth certificate somewhere.
It doesn’t matter, you might find it, because we’ll do more recordings than we do today. So, going back to school, you were at school an er, that’s another thing that’s changed completely isn’t it, different carry on altogether at school in those days. I mean what were’t discipline like?
R-Oh you could call it fairly strict, I mean one word, used to suffice. You know it were enough for you.
Yes, because they’d use the cane?
R-Oh aye. And when we moved from Riley Street [school] we went up To Alder Hill when we was seven and every morning when t’bell went you’d all to fall in and line up and then th’headmaster used to walk round looking at yer clogs to see if you’d cleaned ‘em. You’d to hev clean clogs when you come to t’school.
Like, that ‘ud be t’usual footwear for everybody, I mean they’d all be in clogs wouldn’t they.
R-All be in clogs aye.
Were any of the kids in shoes?
R-No. All clogs.
All with irons, no rubbers.
R-No, clog irons.
Who were t’cloggers in Earby?
R-Cloggers? Well, t’Co-op were one o’t biggest and then there were one called Jennings, him and his lad, you know they were reight old timers and t’lad he went off wi’ consumption when he’d be about twenty one. So that clogging shop finished ‘cause he were taking over off his dad. There were one on Colne Road but they didn’t stop so long, they come frae Burnley I think happen thinking there was plenty of scope but there weren’t. When you think about it, at half past six o’t morning when they were all going to work it sounded like a lot of horses, cavalry coming, clogs, clomp clomp clomp.
Oh yes, there’s a lot of people that didn’t know anything about the area that have come here and made that mistake, they thought they were going to work on horses. When I were a lad in Stockport, you know during t’war, there were still a tremendous number wore clogs then. An indeed, I wore clogs meself when I were farming and when I was on’t cattle wagon but they’ve gone out completely now. I still have some clog irons and wooden pegs, you know the wooden pegs you drove into t’nail holes before you put your new irons on. I’ve still got pegs and clog nails and clog irons at home but I haven’t got any clogs.
R-Last feller to wear clogs, he lived up Stoneybank a bit higher up. It were when that Earby Film Transport were in’t go. He were like one o’t partners theer and his wife used to play hell with him walking down at six o’clock at morning clomping away in’t clogs. Eeeh, she used to play hell about him in his clogs but he said I’ll wear clogs as long as ever I can.
Well, that was just what I said because they were such good footwear, I mean my feet are still as straight as a die and I’m sure it was wi’ wearing clogs. And I remember it was very often a curious thing for people to see me wearing clogs. I remember delivering some cattle down in Surrey once and the woman in the house brought the children out to see me, she brought them out to have a look at the clogs because they’d never seen clogs down there, they just had no knowledge of them and she heard me walking round and she couldn’t understand how I could stand up in ‘em and drive in ‘em and I said well let’s put it this way, Be easier than wearing high heeled shoes, put me in high heels and I wouldn’t last so long. No, clogs are all right. I always had double irons, did you have single irons or doubles?
R-What do you mean, t’thick ‘uns?
No, I’d two sets of irons on.
R-No, I never had, I know some did do. Some had thick ‘uns.
Oh yes, like Colne Irons. I’ve got some Colne irons at home.
R- Last irons I had and t’last nails, I give ‘em to I give ‘em to this Billy Taylor ‘cause he said they’re bad to get now, rings, heel irons and that so what I had I give him ‘em and his wife said what you fetched them up here for, it’s time he chucked ‘em away.
I mean that was another thing about clogs wasn’t it, because you could do something about them yourself, you know, if you got a loose iron you just got into t’back yard with an hammer and nails and some pegs and you could soon sort your clogs out and it didn’t cost you much.
R-No.
So when you were at school, you’d be at school until you were ten years old, well you’d be at school till you were thirteen but did you go half-timing at ten?
R-I went half time at twelve.
At twelve, yes. And am I right in saying that before you could go half-timing you’d got to have a certificate to say that your education had reached a certain level and they wouldn’t let you go unless you’d got your certificate.
R-No. And then you’d to be of certain health, good health to go into t’mill then.
Yes. Who gave you a medical inspection?
R-A doctor frae Barlick.
Which one was that, do you remember his name?
R- No I don’t remember his name.
And where did he do that inspection?
R-In’t office at t’mill.
Aye, that’s the reason I asked you, it seemed to be the usual thing that it was actually done at the mill and like you didn’t go to his surgery and he didn’t come to your house, you went to the office at the mill and you were called in and what sort of an inspection did he give you, was it thorough or did he just sort of look at you….
R-Well he had a look at you and I don’t know, he had them theer, you know that he inspected your chest.
Stethoscope?
R-Aye, and he didn’t give you a proper eye test but he said like can you read that and that sort of thing. It were, they knew what they were doing, that you were going to pass ‘cause when you think about it there were lots managed to get in, they were half dead, they’d never had any good meals in their life.
Did you ever know anybody ever fail that exam?
R-No.
Never?
R-No.
I asked Billy Brooks about it and he said that all the doctor did he said Oh, he’s Jim Brook’s lad isn’t he? He’s all reight! And that was it, you know I mean there was no way he was going to knock him back because he knew the family and knew they needed the money. I mean do you think that’s the sort of thing that were going on, you know, they needed the hands in the mill, they needed the cheap labour and they knew the families needed the money.
R-That’s it aye. Aye that, I thought they wouldn’t refuse so many that wanted to come into t’mill. Course, there weren’t much else were there, only t’mill.
Mill and agriculture, that was about it wasn’t it.
R-Mmmm. And tem were poor wages in’t agriculture wasn’t they.
Yes. So when you left school you’d be able to read and write and do your arithmetic. And I mean basically, that ‘ud be about it wouldn’t it? Were you taught anything else at school other than reading writing and arithmetic?
R-well you used to get a bit of history but you’d to be interested in it if you fancied it. Then when you were twelve, if you showed any ambition, you got to go to t’woodwork. And I got to go to t’woodwork. We went to’t school and t’mill alternate you know.
Mornings one week and afternoons another.
R- Aye, and t’woodwork were Friday morning for us and down at New Road they’d no wood work there and they’d to come up to Alder Hill at afternoons.
You were at school at Alder Hill weren’t you.
R-Yes and alternate but him what I were learning to weave with he wanted you in every Saturday morning, it should have been alternate Saturday mornings off, you were half time. He wanted me in every Saturday morning and er, I didn’t go in one Saturday morning, we went playing football. And when I got home at dinnertime, eh, me father played heck. He said Mr Greenwood’s left his sweeping waiting of you coming in and then you hadn’t landed when t’mill stopped and he’d to start and do his sweeping. And I said well, I says lads said come on, go footballing I says, so I fancied it and er, he used to give me threepence a week, did him that was teaching me to weave, one of them threepenny bits and this weekend following the Saturday that I hadn’t been I didn’t get a threepenny bit #cause I hadn’t been in that Saturday morning.
So you’d go to the mill then to this feller Greenwood, what was his first name, can you remember?
R-William.
William Greenwood. He was a weaver. How many looms did he have?
R-Four.
Four. And you’d be like a weaver’s helper or a tenter, did they call ‘em.
R-Well, some on ‘em had six loom and then they had what they called a tenter. Running these two looms.
An how long were you with, and of course you weren’t paid by the firm, all you got was what he gave you.
R-That’s it, aye.
How long did that go on before they reckoned you were fit to go on some looms?
R-well, I were half time until I were thirteen and then I went full time. And I were going full time to this weaver quite a bit and his words were true what he told me, at Monday when I went in about not coming at Saturday. He says look, if tha wants to be a good weaver tha’ll hev to learn and he says tha can’t learn weaving up on a football field! And he says, more hours you put in here and t’better you’ll be. Gets thirteen and there were another lad, he were learning to weave and all and he were about thirteen and then a weaver give up, that were four loom and this other lad got two loom and I got two loom.
When you were thirteen? Which shed were that in, which shed?
R-B&W Hartley’s on’t New Road.
That’s Brook Shed.
R-Yes.
You were in Brook Shed. Were they the only tenants there or were there… Were they tenants or did they own the mill?
R-No they were tenants.
And were they the only tenants or were there other firms in the mill.
R-There would be.
So they’d have like what, 1200 loom?
R-400.
But there’d be more looms than that in Brook Shed ?
R-Oh aye. There’d be first ‘un 200 loom, second ‘un 200 loom so that were like a 400 loom place split up for two firms and then there’d be another, Pickles’s 400 loom, Bracewell’s 400 loom, and Thomas Henry’s 400 loom. Actually they were 400 loom sets.
When you say Thomas Henry’s, is that Hartley’s?
R-That were a Hartley, another Hartley, brother
Yes. So that were a 1200 loom shed [1600 actually] And t’Bracewell firm that were in there, who were that, C&G?
R-Bracewell?
Yes, the Bracewell firm.
R-What I worked wi’?
No, you were working for Hartley’s weren’t you.
R-Bracewell Hartley.
Oh I’m sorry, that was B&W Hartley?
R- B&W. W was his brother but he got out on it did his brother William.
That’s Bracewell and William Hartley and they had 400 looms in Brook Shed. 1921.
R-Sommat like that yes.
So then you’d go on to two looms, how much could you earn off two looms in 1921?
R-Well, like a pound happen. With a bit of luck and no breakages I think we could make about ten shilling a loom. It were a good firm to work for were that.
Aye, what were they weaving?
R-They were only weaving ordinaries.
Like printers.
R-Aye, printers, Burnley printers, then we went off plain ‘uns onto sateens But I think all t’sateens were going abroad, exporting.
And how long were you on two looms afire you got shoved up?
R-Two or there year.
So you’d be like 23 or 24 before you got on to four looms?
R-No I got four loom when I were sixteen.
Right. Oh no I’m sorry I had it wrong, I meant sixteen, never mind. So you’d do about three year on two looms and when you got to sixteen you’d got to four looms?
R-Aye.
And was that what most people had for a set?
R-Yes. At most o’t places. Where they had six looms they had a learner and when he got so as he could do a bit he were a mug I’ some of these what had six looms. They used to take it out of them, they had everything to do , go for t’weft and take pieces in while t’other feller’s sat down.
So in that shed you were working in at Bracewell Hartley’s they didn’t have cloth carriers?
R-No, pull your own pieces off.
Yes, and they didn’t have weft carriers?
R- No.
And if you had a smash, a trap, did you have any trap hands.
R-No, you’d to do it yourself.
So basically the only help you had was the tackler if you had a really really bad smash the tackler ‘ud come and see to it for you.
R-Aye, but it had to be a big ‘un before they’d, it had to screw up or owt of that. But it were just a silly do I thowt. I mean they used to say if you had a seam in a piece it cost a shilling. Well if you had a nasty smash, you were forced to have a seam so you might as well let ‘em screw it up as well as piecing ‘em all. And if you had like a heald trap wi’ a broken heald we’d have to pull back and all, well we could be an hour. Whereas if they’d have let it go, I don’t know why they med ‘em do all that, piecing ‘em and then there were seams at finish.
The thing that I could never understand when you look at the economics of it is that it always seemed to me that if you’ve a shed with a thousand looms it must pay to have a trap hand because while that weaver’s dealing with that trap they’re not weaving.
R-No, there’s nowt going on is there.
No production. You’d think that from the firm’s point of view it’d be worth it to have a trap hand wouldn’t you?
R-Definitely, yes.
Because when all’s said and done the name of the game is for the weaver to weave and if the weaver isn’t weaving, forget it there’s no money being made. That was something at Bancroft, I could never understand at Bancroft why, even with only 500 looms running, I reckon they could have supported a trap hand. Anyway, you’re working at Bracewell and William Hartley’s in Brook Shed, you’re sixteen years old, it’s 1924 and you’ve got four looms. You were a fair bloke then! What were you doing with the money?
R-Giving me mother it, got a penny in’t shilling spending money.
And what did you do with your spending money?
R-Well, a lot ‘ud laugh and smirk at yer, put it in’t bank! Used to put 6d in’t bank. Me brother, when t’time came, he never got put up into another class, poor scholar, but I’ll bet he could have led a lot of them teachers a dance after he’d left school for two year. And while we were going to school part, he’d say I’m putting mine in’t Co-op bank, we had to go to t’Yorkshire Penny you know, they’d come to t’school for your money at one time. I’m drawing out o’t Yorkshire Penny, I’m putting it in t’Co-op. They give yer ¾ % interest more nor t’Penny bank! Mind you, we’re only talking about playing about with sixpences. And then it comes again, he says I’m finishing wi’t Co-op, he says I’m going to Burnley Building Society, he says, and when you get a pound in you can go into a different account and you get better interest. And we wouldn’t have above £2 in all told! But couldn’t he weigh t’job up, and he could weigh things up better nor some o’t teachers after he’d left school. He were one o’ them late developers.
What was his name again? Melbourne?
R-Yes. And if you took gardening, he could leave a lot o’t head gardeners standing, names o’t flowers and plants….
We’ve moved on at a fair rate and one of the things I want to do is , I want to talk to you about some of the things you did for entertainment when you were a child.
When you were at school, one of the things that interests me nowadays is the way people are over protective of their children. I don’t know whether you saw this silly thing the other day where they’ve decided it’s dangerous for them to play conkers in’t school yard and chase each other round, because they might hurt themselves. What sort of things can you remember doing, games and entertainment.
R-What, at playtime?
Any time.
R-Well, eh if we could come across a salmon tin or a fruit tin and some old rags we’d roll ‘em all up and mek a ball and play football while thing were done. Play cricket up t’back street and get played hell wi’ by t’neighbours. And then we used to do a thing that were very dangerous, no wonder t’neighbours played heck, we used to get a big nut , like off top of a picking shaft and then we got a piece of metal that went through t’cranks like as long as your finger. Then we used to get that er, there used to be some matches, they called ‘em red lights and green lights like, and we’d get some of these red lights and we used to break all’t , that inflammable stuff off, put it into t,nut , put this other thing on top, put it on a stone and then drop a big stone on it and it were like a gun going off.
Do you know, I used to do the same thing, them red and green matches you were talking about, we used to call ‘em Bengal Lights. You could buy boxes on ‘em and the phosphorous if you like, went half way down the stick and when you lit them it was like a big flare.
R-That’s it, mmmm.
Well what we used to do, we’d get a big nut and two bolts that just fitted it, and we used to screw it part way on and then fill the nut with match head or anything we could get hold of. Screw the other bolt in as tight as we could and throw it at a wall, they went of wi’ a hell of a crack!
R-Eeh, aye! It were dangerous, you didn’t know where they were going to fly to did you? And then there were, another thing we used to do, when t’lime kilns were going at Lothersdale, and they used to come down Stoneybank wi’ carts full of lime, there were nearly allus some dropping off.
And that ‘ud be quicklime.
R-It had been burnt and we used to get that and wi’ like dodging it, we daren’t let parents know, then we used to get a syrup tin, put some water on t’top on it, bang t’tin lid on firm and purrit in a dustbin. And then it weren’t long before blooming bin lid flew up in’t air (laughter) There weren’t many dustbins in those days but we found what there were! Oh it were powerful were that, t’gas off that lime.
No, you’re right. Did you ever use acetylene? You know, wi’ carbide.
R-No we didn’t do it wi’ that but what we did there were rock sulphur and sommat else we used to get ….
Well, rock sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal makes gunpowder.
R-Ah well rock…. Saltpetre and sommat else, we used to mix them. You could get it at t’chemist but you were getting it for your dad. If chemist knew he wouldn’t have supplied us you know. I were thinking about th’end house where we lived. They didn’t make the road in those days they just used to come wi’ them big stones and there were one or two nice flat uns what you could put your stuff on, eh it must have made ‘em jump when that happened, Bang! Then we’d to find t’nut! You could hev lamed yerself.
Well, a lot did didn’t they? How about going out and wandering about t’countryside and getting into mischief?
R-Well we didn’t really get into mischief but we used to go for long walks. And er, I don’t know what you called ‘em but there were one or two going down t’Fence End, like th’old road, going down t’Long Drag, there’s some bushes theer and they had some things, they were like a big gooseberry and they were full of claws and you could throw ‘em at a coat and they’d stick. Well we used to get these and coming back into Earby we’d see a woman all dressed up chucked three or four of these. Same as all them hooks like that, they’ve invented other things off ‘em now haven’t they.
Aye, stickybobs we used to call them and a teasel’s very much like that and a teasel’s what were used for cloth raising. But I’ll tell you something we used to do and by God it were cruel. You know rosehips? Hips and haws, if you break one of those open there’s like little seeds covered in hairs and if you put them down somebody’s back under their shirt you know their back comes out in a rash and it’s the worst itch there is. Did you ever do that?
R-(laughter) No! But we used to hev some stink bombs sometimes and go to t’pictures and send ‘em rolling down under the seats. Little glass…(laughter) eh, they did used to pong!
We used to make our own out of old cinema film. You very often found some behind the cinema near us and can you remember on the old valves on the old cars the valve caps were big things, they were about two inches long. Well we used pinch them off cars and if you rolled the film up tight and shoved it in. If you lit it at the end wi’ a match it’d flare until it got into the valve cap but then there wasn’t enough oxygen for it to burn properly and it just made smoke and oh it stunk. We used to make them, we must have been worse than you! How about dandelion sap, ever do anything with that? You know that white sap out of the stems?
R-Eh aye, put it on yer hand and eventually it ud go black. No they were happy days, we used to walk far enough, we allus had a dog. Mother used to say Are you going out, tek t’dog wi’ yer. Well everybody knew who they were because we hed a dog, generally a spaniel, if they saw yer doing owt you know, oh that’ll be’t Inmans, they hev a spaniel dog. We used ter go down t’beck, it used to love swimming and then occasionally like there were part voles, water voles well they’re all reight is them, they’re harmless enough but of course if the dog saw one it could catch it killed it. We allus felt sorry for ‘em if it hed been killed because they were harmless, it weren’t like a rat. Eh, and one time, there were a farm called t’Brown House, well, it’d be a good two mile, three mile happen.
Up near Black Lane Ends there? Up near Howshaw?
R-No, going down Elslack way.
Oh, that Brown House, yes.
R-And er, me father were a bit friendly wi’ these farmers. There were two fellers and two women like in’t family. None on ’em were wed. An er…
Can you remember their name?
R-Bancroft. And er, we’re coming up, we’d had a fair walk and we’re coming up and he must hev spotted me father must John [Bancroft] and he says, it were just coming on Christmas and he says Willta do a job for me? Father said what’s that? He said somebody’d ordered a goose and they’d never been for it, he says I wonder if you’d tek it up into Earby and tek it for ‘em. He says we haven’t time and he says You can fetch basket back any time when you’re walking down. And he [father] says Oh aye, I’ll tek it and t’lads’ll fetch t’basket back in’t morning. (laughter) We weren’t that old we’d to walk all t’way back to t’Brown House wi’ th’empty basket t’following morning but they were mekking mince pies and oh there were a grand smell. Would you like a mince pie straight out o’t oven? We had about five mince pies, it were worth going for then to tek the basket back. We used to go to West Marton and all, and there were an elderly couple theer and they wanted sommat frae t’chemist at Earby and it were Sunday when we were theer and Aye he says, school has holiday tomorrow, lad’s fetch it round for you so we’d to go to t’chemist and get this stuff and then walk to Marton. One o’ them where you couldn’t say to me dad we’re not going. There were no will you do, lad’s’ll tek it.
So you and Melbourne ud go together?
R-Yes.
How about blackberrying and bilberrying and stuff like that?
R- Oh we used to do that, go up on’t moors bilberrying. And er then at Thornton Rock, I don’t know why, but there were a lot of wild strawberries and we used to go theer and then they started tipping ash pit rubbish and I know we were round one time in the back end and oh there were bags of potatoes growing. They were happen t’skins that’d been thrown into t’dustbins and that we used to pull them up and fill us cap wi’ new potatoes and we liked that, all sorts, well they wouldn’t do it today, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Them wild strawberries are nice aren’t thy. Them little uns. And they seem to like lime you know. I know a place up at Settle where you could always find some and it were on the side of an old lime kiln and oh they were beautiful. If they sell them in restaurants you know they charge you a fortune for ‘em you know, wild strawberries.
R-But er, we never had to go near Thornton Rock, we could go down Fence End we could go all round about for t’walks but you’d to keep away from t’Rock. You might have fallen down and you were trespassing.
‘Cause o’t danger. Aye. Were it full of water then?
R-There were a lot of water in but you could go under t’tunnel into it you know. You hadn’t to climb down, we’ve gone many a time getting frog eggs and that, under t’tunnel and then getting ‘em.
What did you do wi’t frog spawn?
R-fetch it home and get some tadpoles.
How about bird nesting?
R-No, we didn’t go bird nesting. You hadn’t to do that, some o’t lads did, go up on’t moors and get seagull’s eggs.
Aye, Tewitt eggs.
R-No I’m glad to say we never did any damage like that, robbing t’nests.
What were’t names of some of your mates from school, can you remember them?
R-Well, I’d one, they called him Hayden Hargreaves and they lived up t’same street as us and we went mates ever since we could more or less walk. His birthday were in July and mine were in December. And er, then his father were a piano player and in them days they had ‘em at picture places for the silent films, well he must hev got a job at Nelson, they flit to Nelson and then they came back to Earby, well we were mates again and then I were his best man when he got wed and he were my best man when I got wed and we were friendly up to him dying. I think many a time I were daft if I’d threepence I’d give him twopence to buy a packet of Woodbines wi’ and that’s what killed him smoking, he did suffer. They took him into hospital in Keighley and I went down at night, eh he says, I knew tha’d come Fred. If tha’d hev come tomorrow tha’s hev been to late, he says I’m buggered, just like that and he says look at all them nurses he says! Eh, but no he says, I’m buggered. And by gum he were, he deed the night after. He could hardly talk and his chest were bad well, Morrison, I rung Morrison up, I said what’s up wi’ me mate, they tell me they’ve rushed him off to th’hospital. [Arthur Morrison was the local GP] He says he’s never emptied his clogs! I said what do you mean, he says he used to sup that much ale he had a hollow leg he says. It were filling his clogs wi’ ale he says, he’s getten cold. I said well he didn’t sup a lot at weekend because I were wi’ him, ah but he says you wouldn’t be stopping in’t pub as long as he did, he were one of them that passed out every time. He told me that went home at the Sunday night he started being badly, he went home and he said I started being badly and I knew there were a light across the road and they had a telephone in theer and he says I crawled on me hands and knees and knocked on that door and asked ‘em if they’d ring for’t doctor. He said I couldn’t stand up. He said I were poorly and t’doctor came and he says hospital straight way.
And that were Arthur were it? Arthur Morrison.
R-Yes.
He were my doctor until he died. [actually till he retired, he died about ten years later]
R-He were all reight were Arthur.
Oh aye, I had lot of time for Arthur, good man.
R-He could play hell wi’ em and he could play hell wi’ you.
I’ll tell you a story about Arthur. You remember when that Asian Flu were on, round about 1957 or something like that, and er I had that you know and oh my God I were poorly. I could just about crawl upstairs and that were all and I remember Arthur came to see me and he played hell wi’ me. He says you know what your trouble is, you‘ve never had anything wrong with you and now you’ve got flue you think you think it’s the end of the world. Stay in bed, drink plenty and take aspirin and he says stay there for w week, you’ll be all right, I’m not coming to see you again. Well, it must have been thirty years later, I called up at Windy Ridge up at Thornton there you know to see him and Kim his wife and I went into the kitchen and she was cooking something, she were doing something on the kitchen table and she says It’s no good coming to see Arthur, he’s in bed with flu. Oh I said, I’ll go and sick visit him, and I said do you mind, she says no, I’ll be pleased for anybody to go and see him he’s as miserable as sin. I says Oh, I’ll cheer him up and I went upstairs and I didn’t realise but she followed me up, she were stood behind the door. Anyway, I walked in and he’s laid in bed and oh God he looked miserable! He’s grey and sweating and coughing and bloody spluttering you know. I says Now then Arthur, what’s up, touch of flu? Oh God he says, I’m bad! I said you know what your trouble is don’t you, you’ve never had anything wrong with you and now you’ve a touch of flu you think it’s the end of the world. Drink plenty, take aspirin and stay in bed till you’re better. He sat up in bed, he was mad you know, he said Fat lot of good you are! I said that’s exactly what you told me thirty years ago when I had Asian Flu in 1958. I said you’ve got your own medicine back now and I’m going to go and have a cup of tea with Kim and then I’ll go. I walked out and Kim was behind the door, You’ve just done right she said.
R-Aye, I’ll bet he were a bad patient.
Oh he was terrible, Kim said he was the worst patient you could possibly have had and everything he had, if ever he had anything wrong w8th him he thought he were dying. (Laughter)
R-Well I once had some sciatic. Eh, I had some pain I were bloody bad and Morrison came up and he said I want to feel at your bed, I want you on a solid bed. I said it is solid. It were a new mattress which we’d getten. Aye he says It’s all right is that now get on your back and your legs as straight as a gun barrel and he says whatever you do, don’t lift it up or bend it, he says I’ll be round again in’t morning. He came again the day after and then in a bit there were another doctor he lived at t’crossings, he’s theer yet, he comes one time and he gets hold of me leg and he lifts it up and then he gets hold of t’other and he lifts it reight up here, now he says get that as heigh as that! I says Dr Morrison says I’ve to keep it straight, Oh yes he says I quite agree with that but you’ve got over the worst now you want a bit of exercise and he came did Morrison later on and he said I’m glad you’re doing as we’ve told you and you keep that up and you’ll never have that again as long as you live. But if you don’t cure it now you can have it repeating. I’d be in me sixties then and he’s coming down Stoneybank one day and he pulls up, he says How you going on? I says yer telled me a lie you know one time he says What did I say? I says you told me if I did everything you told me I wouldn’t have any repeat of that pain. He says and have you had? I says yes I have. He says now then Fred I’m going to tell you something , your eighty now aren’t you. I says Yes. He says you were only in your sixties then and he said just look round at people what you knew that’s all died before they were seventy. Well he says You’re getten past seventy, you’re ten year past it he says you want to weigh things up before you start talking. I thought you old bugger! (laughter)
How about childhood illnesses, can you remember anything wrong with you when you were a child?
R-Croup. Which, it left me wi’ a bad cough and er I were only in standard one and she were a bit of an hot-headed un were t’teacher and I know it be about half past eleven.
Standard one, you’d be about six. There were infants and then standard one weren’t there.
R-Seven. I were coughing and I couldn’t stop. Get outside Inman! Stand out at the door, coughing, no one can do anything for it. I went and stood outside o’t classroom door and in a bit, Mr Lindley were t’schoolmaster he says what’s to do Fred, have you been doing something wrong? I’ve been coughing I says and she’s sent me out o’t room ‘cause I were coughing. He says Oh, now then he says, go and get your coat and go home and tell your mother to give you some cough mixture and if you don’t feel any better don’t come back this afternoon. Anyway, I went back at afternoon and I felt a lot better. I thought I’ll bet he didn’t half round that teacher up, that Mr Lindley he were a reight honest schoolmaster. I’ll bet he rousted her.
Were he t’headmaster at Alder Hill?
R-Yes. I couldn’t help bloody coughing.
How about tonsillitis, anything like that?
R-No I never had tonsillitis.
Did you know anyone who had?
R-Aye, I think Hayden had it. Owt wi’ his throat or anything like that he always had a terrible do in wintertime. And it were all wi’ smoking.
And did, have you ever heard of anybody having their tonsils out at home?
R-Yes, it was a regular do, they didn’t go to t’hospital then and it were t’same wi’ er circumcision it were all done at home.
Can you remember anyone having diphtheria?
R-Yes. I think there were a building at t’side of Black Lane Ends pub, a bit lower down and it were like hospital, fever hospital.
Scarlet fever?
R-I can remember a cousin of mine having t’measles bad and when she started mending one of her eyes went crossed, skenning. You saw a lot of that once over, cross eyes, didn’t you.
Measles could be very dangerous then, I mean I’m not as old as you obviously, I’m thirty years younger than you but I can remember there used to be a yellow ambulance and we used to call it the Fever wagon. That were scarlet fever, scarletina, diphtheria, German measles. But there were a lot of things about like that then that you never hear of now.
R-No, these injections have more or less cured ‘em haven’t they.
Like rickets but they say rickets is coming back but there used to be people wi’ rickets you know, wi’ their legs bent. How about dentist?
R-went wi’ t’school, I got two filled one time.
Did you have a nurse come round to the school to have a look at you, to inspect you.
R-Yes. Used to say t’school dentist’s coming. I can remember as p[lain as owt when they were filling these teeth they had some chalk, white chalk and they broke ‘em in two and then thy put ‘em in your mouth to absorb moisture. And I know when they’d finished he says Did I hurt you and I said No. He says your telling a fib arenta? I am not I said, it didn’t bother me and you know he were grinding away and winding that bloody thing. There weren’t nowt electric then.
No, was it one he pedalled or did he have somebody winding it for him.
R-Oh he had somebody winding it aye. Then they got on to t’pedal didn’t they later on.
This ud be at school, he’d come to t’school to do it.
R-It were at school, well, they didn’t do ‘em in’t school actually they did ‘em in’t Liberal Club where the library is now and they had a room theer and it were like there were toilets and washbasins and all that if any were needed like and it were better accommodation than t’school in theer. And then t’school nurse used to come round looking in your head and ….
Aye, t’nit nurse. Aye. On the whole, looking back, did you enjoy your schooling?
R-No. I ‘ll be quite honest I didn’t because there were one teacher she knocked me off it. I were a decent scholar up to standard four and I don’t know, we were doing a composition or sommat and a word included window and I spelt it winder she put a red line under and she said write that out hundred times before you go home at four o’clock. Well naturally I writes winder again and then she says you stop in again at play time the following morning, you’ll stop in until you do do it properly. I’m stopping in again another afternoon after t’school and this were another teacher then, they called him Seed. He weren’t theer long and he says what are you doing and I told him and he says it shouldn’t be winder it should be window. I says well she’s never telled me he says well she’s here to teach not to punish you like that and I’ll bet she got t’tale telled to. Well she should have told me it were window and not winder. That there job with teaching and I finished wi’ writing.
That put you off at eleven year old, put you off.
R-Oh aye it did.
So you were glad when you went half timing?
R-Yes, I were glad when I went first time.
Let’s move forward a little bit then, you’re working at Bracewell and William Hartley’s at Brook Shed and you’ve got four looms. You were 16 so that’d be about 1924 or 25. What did you do, I know you said you saved your money, you were living at home, what did you do for entertainment of an evening or at weekend?
R-Well when it were wet you’d to stop in, you’d to look at a book, what you’d looked at many and many a time. You were off to bed at seven o’clock in winter time. And then me dad had a couple of allotments during t’war, we spent biggest part of our time on theer, weeding and that.
When you say during t’war, which war?
R-14/18 war.
How come your dad didn’t go to the war?
R-He were exempt ‘cause there were three tacklers where he worked and two on ‘em were called up into t’war and me dad were the only tackler left in’t mill so. There must have been another feller that were doing a bit of learning or sommat and him and me father run t’mill then till t’war finished.
Remind me again where he was working.
R-Hartley’s, B&W Hartley’s.
So he was working at Brook Shed as well. How long did you stay at Hartley’s at Brook Shed?
R-Oh I didn’t stay so long because me dad got a job at Birley’s, at Albion, he got half a set of looms and managing, like boss tackler sort of thing and half a set of looms. Then there were another half a set of looms and when them come to let I got to go on them.
As a tackler?
R-Wi’ me dad being t’next to it like.
And remind me again, I know it’s on the other tape, but your father’s name was Parkinson.
R-Yes.
So he was boss tackler at Albion for Birley’s and so you went from Hartley’s. Did you go there at the same time as him?
R-No, me dad were theer a bit afore I went.
What year did you go there do you think? You had four looms at sixteen.
R-Oh, I wasn’t much older, happen about 17 or 18.
That’d be fairly young to go on a half set wouldn’t it, like 17 or 18 year old.
R-Well I were only like apprentice with me dad having t’other half set.
When you say half set, how many looms in a set? For a tackler then.
R-Oh it’d be on for hundred.
So you and your dad between you ‘ud be looking after 100 loom. 25 weavers, they’d be four sets then wouldn’t they?
R-Four sets aye.
When did t’More Looms come in? How did it affect them really?
R-That were about 1930 weren’t it. Well, one weaver in three has to finish haven’t they. But it didn’t affect tacklers ‘cause they still had all t’loom,s to ‘em.
Yes, like they still had 100 loom sets.
R-Aye.
But the weavers went up from four loom sets to what, six?
R-Six. But er, it made a difference in one way, same as you went in’t four loom if you had a picking band broke or a finger leather they used to put ‘em on theirsel did the weaver. But when they get on to six loom they’d be, Will you put this picking band on, you know, if you were walking past, you got a lot more simple jobs to do ‘cause there were no doubt about it, it were a big jump for a lot o’ th’old weavers, from four to six.
They slowed the looms down didn’t they?
R-Just a bit aye.
Put bigger pulleys on ‘em.
R-Yes.
Newton’s told me that they got these jobs at about that time where they got hundreds and hundreds of loom pulleys to make for’t looms ‘cause obviously they had to make new fast and loose pulleys for ‘em. They didn’t change the pulleys on the shafting, they changed the pulleys on the loom, put bigger ones on to slow ‘em down a bit. Because it were part of the agreement with the union weren’t that if they went up to more looms they slowed down to less picks a minute. And then of course they’d to respace hadn’t they.
R-I know they put pulleys on but I’m not going to say whether th’engineer speeded th’engine up a bit.
[The tape ends here because Fred’s Meals on Wheels lady turned up with his dinner.]
SCG/15 December 2000
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