THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON FEBRUARY 24TH 1979 AT 13 WHITEHEAD STREET, RAWTENSTALL. THE INFORMANT IS JOHN GREENWOOD, FORMER MANAGER AT SPRING VALE MILL. THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Right, we’ll go on this week John with, we are an about social life. Do you remember going to a wedding when you were young?
R- Not really. The thing was that there were so many, shall I say relations on, well on both sides actually, that if there was a wedding only the nearest went which in most cases did not include distant children if you follow what I mean. For instance, say one of my aunties was getting married, and of course she had a sister who had children, her brother did, well those children were invited, but not children of aunts and uncles. So that what you might call family functions were very, very rare. Because, I mean like we were the children of my mother and father, and we were more or less all of an age, so that nobody ever came up to getting married.
Aye. And then another thing, would it be, how much money would people have to spend on things like big wedding breakfasts and what not?
R-Well, the thing is that the practice was of course to have a meal. If there was a meal at the home, where it was convenient, either the bride or the bridegroom or something like that. But as today, they have, you know, they hold functions in restaurants and what have you. In those days it was all done at home. And 1 can remember there being weddings like round and about for the neighbours, and they
always had a feed and unless they were Methodists there was plenty to drink. Because it's a bye word amongst Methodists that they were teetotallers. I'm not saying that that's strictly true, but those were the only weddings that I ever really saw. But funerals were more or less in the same vein. I went to a few funerals because I can remember when me maternal grandfather was buried, there were quite a few children of theirs and all the grandchildren walked it in front of the cortege. And it was just like a Sunday School procession. And we’d to walk what, approximately oh, well over half a mile to the church, probably three quarters of a mile. Well all the grandchildren walked at the front. And I can see us know, because I was only small and we had to go up this right steep hill into Newchurch. Well, you know, little legs were lagging by the time they'd got to the church.
(100)(5 min)
But I do remember afterwards that there were so many they had the funeral tea in the Unitarian Sunday School although he was buried in the Church of England, in the Church of England Chapel yard. Yes, I can remember that. And I mean, all those children, there must have been about thirty or more. It was just like a Sunday School Procession before the cortege. And then of course the mourners came behind. And I’m not sure now in my mind but I believe they walked behind the hearse. I think they might have had one carriage for my grandma because she was getting on but like all the children and the spouses walked behind the cortege, and the friends of course.
That'd be horse drawn of course John?
R- Oh yes, there were no motors.
Black plumes?
R- Yes, aye. There used to be one firm in Bacup who specialised in this. You know they kept them, the Rossendale Carriage Company they were called. I'm not sure whether they are still going. Of course they have coaches today but I'm not sure whether they're still going.
Interesting thing about that John, nowadays we’re used to things like funeral undertakers, in other words somebody who undertakes to conduct the whole thing, you just give them the job. Now was it different in those days? Did you have an undertaker, or did you see to the laying out yourself, and things like that you know? What was the actual procedure with a funeral?
(150)
R- Well, amongst the working classes at any rate, they used to lay them out themselves. Because I can remember that in our area there were two women, or three women who undertook the job of laying people out. And I mean they used to come for them and fortified them with a shot of whisky or their tipple before and then they'd undertake them, they’d wash the body and lay it out on sheets. They'd get the boards and trestles from the undertaker or on the other hand they might have had a couple of
planks you know?
Yes, or a door, I've heard of them being laid out on a door.
R- Yes. Well, they used to cover it with a white sheet you know, trailing right down to the floor.
And then who, who'd provide the coffin? Would it be the undertaker or the joiner?
R - Well the undertaker would. Well no, the undertaker provided the coffin and of course he came and saw to the body. Because, you know in those days when they had them under the window for three days, particularly in hot weather you know, I mean it was, it used to start putrefying you know. There wasn't the hygiene that there is today of course, and you used to be able to go into a house and you could smell death. And this was a thing. In point of fact it used to be that underneath the sheet they used to have a couple of basins full of Izal you know, which was a disinfectant. I know, I know we had that for me father, and I know it happened in quite a few cases, where they used to put this under of course, to counteract any odour that might be coming from the body.
That smell will bring back unhappy memories to a lot of people then of that generation won't it. Aye.
R - Oh well, it does aye. But today of course you see the thing is the modern methods there is, you can hardly smell a corpse.
(200)
Well that's it, modern methods of embalming and chapels of rest with good ventilation systems. I mean it was then the practice, the universal practice, wasn't it, to have the body at home until the actual interment?
R- Oh yes.
And, in those days am I right in saying that everybody was buried?
R - Oh yes, there were no cremations.
Yes. When did cremations start John?
R - Well I couldn’t really give you a date but it became more popular around the 1930s. Where it became more and more popular to the extent that they built crematoriums. I should say 1930's. But up to then none of our family were being cremated, I mean they've all been buried.
What's your own opinion about cremation John, what are your own thoughts about cremation?
R- Oh well, I very much prefer it. Although I have some queer ideas you know, I've told my son that when my time comes he can please himself what he does with the body in as much as he can give it to the hospital for practice on, by students. I mean the thing is that I'm told that these students in the hospitals can't get enough bodies to practice dissection on you know?
Quite possible nowadays, aye.
R- Well I'm told it is so.
Andy so you don't hold any strong views as regards burial versus cremation, anything like that?
R- Oh no, not at all because if we're going to look at it in that light, I'm convinced that once you're dead that’s the end of your physical body.
(250)
Yes.
R- You see? And contrary to the belief that was held shall I say 60 years ago, that you read in your Bible that the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised.
That’s it. Yes, and the dead shall rise, that's it yes.
R- Everybody expected the graves to open up and everybody come out in the physical form which is, of course, it’s taboo. Because I mean, those who have been buried, I mean they've decayed and you know, rotted away. But I mean, this used to be a belief that was prevalent you know when I was a child, well a young man.
Taking it literally from the Bible, yes.
R - Literally, that's right. Well that's not the case and to me, if you put a body into the ground… I don’t, or very rarely go to visit the grave of my wife. For the simple reason she is not there.
That's it.
R- Her earthly remains might be ...
I agree with you John.
R- ... but they are of no consequence, you see?
Yes, I agree with you. Yes.
R- They are of no consequence at all.
No, I must say that I agree with you completely, everything you say about that. And I take it that it’d be the same as now. There’d be a service in the church and then the actual .. or chapel, and then the actual interment. Or straight to the grave?
(300)
R- Well, the point is in Rawtenstall cemetery there were three chapels you see. There was the R.C. the Church of England and the Non-conformist. Well if you weren't a prominent church person, and only the very prominent were ever taken in church or chapel. Oh, I must qualify that, except the Roman Catholics because some of them used to be taken into the church the night before you see? Take the body into the church and leave it there overnight. But even then they were mainly what you might call prominent church people. But the procedure was that the parson came to the house and just said a few words, then the body was taken up the cemetery chapel, and then you had your service in the cemetery chapel, you see? And then from there to the graveside.
That's it, for the actual interment. And of course, a lot of these graveyards, not necessarily in the cemetery, but I mean there'd be some at the cemetery as well which were family graves. Like double deckers and in come cases three deckers weren’t there. Dug down, bricked up and you could buy a plot and you know, say there were two in the family, whoever died first could he put in and then the next one Put on top.
R- Oh well, our family grave held six you see. And they were fairly deep. Well, it held six. And of course, say for instance there was a distant relative who had nobody, they used to inter them in the family graves. But our family grave, how many are there in? There are four in now, five if you reckon a still born child, a more or less still born infant that we had. And there is supposed to be room for another two.
They'll not need to worry about you, John.
R- Oh no.
But, a lighter subject now. Where did you enjoy going most when you were a child? Now that can mean anything.
R- Well, let me say this, it's rather a big subject is that in as much as the enjoyment was mainly confined to taking walks. As I've said before, we didn't use to get away for holidays or anything like that. But say to go up Whitaker Park, that was an event.
(350)(15 min)
Whitaker?
R- Yes it was the big park where there were swings and this kind of thing. But it's very hard to kind of qualify is that in as much as there was no specific place. I'm speaking now of the age of having to go out with my mother and father, there's no specific place. And my mother, on a Sunday afternoon if it was nice, would take us for a walk you see. And of course, living as we do so near the hills, we’d go round what they used to call Marl Pits which is still in being because the sport complex is built on part of it now.
Yes I remember you talking about that when we were talking about going for walks, yes, that's it. And would you say that that’s a thing that’s certainly nowhere near as common nowadays? I can remember when I was young my mother taking us, if we were on holiday for instance you know, she'd take us to the local park or to a local beauty spot, things like that. I1 don't really think that those things happen as much now, do they?
R- Oh no. Well, by the speeding up of travel. For instance, now I mean, children will get on a bus and they'll ride to Whitaker Park. You see what I mean? They, I mean today they've forgot what their legs are for.
Well, yes.
R- And they can be there in a tenth of the time that it used to take as to walk there. It used to be quite an event to go into Whitaker Park on the swings and running about in the grass and that kind of thing.
Did you have any pocket money then John?
R - Oh no. No, pocket money was out.
So the question ‘What did you spend it on.’
R- Oh aye.
If, just say for instance, due to some tremendous stroke of luck, just for arguments sake you found a three penny bit in the gutter, what would you spend it on do you think?
(400)
R- Well let me say that, when you talk about pocket money, as we got a little bit say, shall I say five or six, sometimes we got a Saturday penny if that's the type of pocket money you're meaning. And it was a penny. Well, in those days you see, you could buy quite a lot, a selection of things for a ha’penny. You know you could get black Spanish, liquorice you know. You used to get what they used to call Turnovers which was a sugar confection shaped like a little heart or something like that you know. You'd eat it and there’d be a little bit of a trinket inside, like a little wire ring or something like that. On the other hand you used to get, you could have a happorth of sweets in those days when they were only twopence a quarter you know. You got an ounce for a ha’penny you see. And of course you used to vary it, you used to get that which would last longest. I'll tell you one thing that I used to enjoy and they were these liquorice strips you know, they were about a foot long, and you used to be able to tear them up in narrow strips of about an eighth of an inch, you know they're about an inch wide, flat.
Yes, ribbed.
R- Aye, ribbed. Tear them up. Well you know you got one of those you could make it last for a long time.
Aye. I know just exactly what you mean. Tell me something John. You talk about Spanish. Now, we used to, Spanish was black Spanish, there were different kinds of liquorice that we could get. For a start off there was liquorice root, dried liquorice root, now you'd be able to get that wouldn't you.
R - Yes. Oh yes.
Now we used to be able to get that fresh as well. There was a shop called Mather’s near the school that I used to go top and you could get it fresh. Did you ever buy it fresh, before it was dried, it was the soft root and it was beautiful.
R- No.1'
Oh it was beautiful. It was like a parsnip root nearly you know and well you can imagine what a liquorice stick's like you know. Now as well as that we had black liquorice, we used to call it black liquorice, not Spanish because the black liquorice is like the one you've been talking about, that you tear up in strips, liquorice allsorts, things like that. And then as well as that you could get some stuff, we used to call it Spanish and it was very hard, almost like pitch.
R - Oh yes, aye. That’s right.
Can you remember that?
R- Oh indeed, yes you can still get it.
(450)
I didn’t know that.
R- Oh aye, go down to the herb shop, you'll get some off Fitzpatrick.
Aye that's it.
R- And I’ll tell you what. We used to get a pennorth of Spanish between us and you’d have a medicine bottle. Chop it up, put it in the bottle with water and shake it up until it dissolved and you got a drink, yes.
That’s it. We used to do the same thing, we used to do the same thing, aye, that's it, aye. Talking about bottles, we were on the bottles there, mineral water bottles then, had they got on to screw tops, or were they still the ones with the alleys in?
R - Oh no, pop-alleys, pop-alleys.
Pop-alleys in?
R- Aye. In point of fact we used to…
Never!
R- Break it, break them to get the alleys out. And I mean, we used to play like marbles, aye. Glass alleys, aye.
Yes, that's it. Living at home. Did friends call in to the house often?
R- Well let me say occasionally. But as I got older, well, always you know, wherever we lived you always got neighbours dropping in. I mean I've mentioned this before you know, like neighbours come into your house and my mother would go into their house and this kind of thing. But as you got older, say my teens like, my mother made her friends and the thing is that I can bring to mind one couple who used to come from Accrington, they always arrived at Sunday dinner time. And particularly when my mother joined the Salvation Army, the officers used to come you know because they were very hard up for money. Again, like my older sister made a friend, well she nearly lived at our house in as much as she'd come at Saturday and Sunday and several nights through the week and this kind of thing.
Would you say, just interrupting you there John, would you say that in some cases the practice of inviting somebody round to your house, something like that, could be a sort of very nicely concealed but very nicely presented sort of charity?
R - Well if you could put it that way. You could put it that way yes.
You understand what I mean don’t you.
R- Well, the thing is my mother had always kept open house, this is after my father died of course you see? In as much as anybody could come. For instance I would, let me put it this way, and it applied mainly to my mother rather than to myself. She’d go to the service at the Salvation Army on Sunday afternoon, just for arguments sake. And there was somebody there who had come to the service who would like to come at night, but they couldn't go home. For instance I have in mind a family who came from Crawshawbooth which is two miles away. Now they'd come at Sunday afternoon. Well, to go back to Crawshawbooth and back to Rawtenstall…
Made it eight miles in the day, didn't it? Yes.
R- And to walk it you see as it was in them days. Well she used to bring them to their tea. And mind you they had to have what was going. I mean, there were no special preparation made. You know, a tin of salmon and a tin of chunks, that kind of thing.
Yes but you can just imagine somebody in a neighbourhood who was, you know, temporarily for some reason, sickness or bereavement or unemployment, something like that, temporarily on hard times. It could be very handy to be able to pop round to a neighbour for a cup of tea and a slice of jam and bread, you know. I mean just as a social occasion but it could be a very good thing couldn’t it, a life saver.
R- Well, this is a point because, again, I’m speaking now of the time when I would be about 17 or 18 and working and I had another sister working. My mother used to work you see and I had two sisters working till one of them died. But I have in mind a family and he was an outdoor worker and they were only young, but they got three children in very short time. Now there were times in the winter when they were frozen out you know. When I say outdoor worker, he was a building worker. Well, they couldn't do any building when the ground was frozen hard and they couldn't do anything and of course the unemployment pay was very, very little and sometimes they couldn't go on the dole, because they weren’t out of work you see, it were a case of temporary stoppage. In that if it thawed they'd he working and this
kind of thing. Now they had a very rough time and of course these three children, well I've nursed them all you know and they used to, as a special treat we used to have them all up to our house at Sunday. But at the same time, if my mother was making a mealy you know she'd have made that bit extra. Or for instance, you'd had a joint
and there was cold meat left. Rather than give it to the cat it always found a good home. There was a great spirit of camaraderie about in those days compared with what there is now.
Yes, ah well, I’m going to interrupt you again I think John. I think you have hit on something there. It's an impression that I've got from talking to a lot of people of your generation that there was more of a spirit of camaraderie or neighbourliness, of concern for other people. I think, from my impression, that there was more of it then than now. Do you think that’s because everyone was in the same boat?
R- Quite so. The thing is that today we are more affluent and of course we’re not, but we are not as dependent on one another because there is always our friend social security now and it’s taken away that dependence.
Yes, that’s it. What I’m thinking is that in the circumstances, say like your mother’s, obviously not an affluent family if your father was sick for a month or something like that, she could very easily be in the position where roles were reversed and she’d have been very glad for a bit of help from somebody else.
R- Oh yes.
And I mean, the impression I get is that sort of knowledge at the back of your mind was a very strong incentive to do something for other people because it might be your turn next. Do you think there is any truth in that?
(600)
R- Oh there definitely was because 1 mean it works both ways. Many a time, particularly during my father’s last illness, well I say last illness, it lasted three years, but there were times when we were very, very grateful when somebody brought something in. Like I mentioned before when they used to make broth. They'd have this great big pan, washing pan, and everybody, all the neighbours got a bit you see? And it's been very nice sometimes to be on the receiving end. You see, let me give you a case in point now. When my wife was ill, which is not all that many years ago,
a matter of about fourteen years ago, we lived in a rather posh area you know. Well they thought it was, they thought themselves that little bit better. And the thing is that she had been ill, and there was a knock at the door and I went to the door it was one of
the neighbours from up the street. She said “I know Mrs Greenwood hasn’t been able to do any baking, and I know that she always made cake and that kind of thing so I've just brought you a few buns.” I've never forgotten that and I hold that woman in esteem even to this day you see?
Yes that's it.
R - Because it was totally out of the blue. Now that was just an example of this spirit, but it’s not very prevalent today. For instance I mean, here, no neighbours ever come in here except the lady next door you see? Now she is very good. But, on the other hand you could be starving and I don't think anybody else would bother. I'm not saying they wouldn't.
We get instances of that don't we, of old people especially, who have falls or something like that and nobody discovers them for days
R- That's true.
Sometimes, in particularly bad cases, I mean you read of people not being discovered for weeks and months in such circumstances.
R- True, yes.
Very sad really. How did you spend Saturday when you were young John?
R- When you say young, what age? Because I mean, it differed.
(30 min)
Well, first of all I’ll say that what a lot of people don’t realise nowadays was that to all intents and purposes, Saturday, when you were five, six or seven years old, was a working day up to dinner time at any rate.
R – Oh yes.
I mean nowadays we associate Saturday as being one of the two days of the week end, but in those days Saturday was a working day and a day of preparation for Sunday wasn't it?
R- True, yes.
(650)
So, say when you were five or six year old, when you first started to really take an interest in what was happening.
R- Well Saturday was the day when my mother use to take us to the market if it was fit. On the other hand you used to, you'd have had your bath at Friday night and of course your hands and face were washed and you were tidied up you see. And you could play out but you hadn't to play you know in no water or no mud pies or anything like that.
Aye. don't get witchered.
R- Now that's a word that's gone out. But like it used to be something special, your mum was at home you see. You could run into the house and your mother or your father was there for that matter. And like it was different to the remainder of the week. And it used to be that, as I said, she'd take us perhaps to the market or on the other hand she might take us for a bit of a walk if she hadn't chores to do.
Now bearing in mind that, because this really comes in with this question about Saturday, bearing in mind that you would be going to a Methodist Chapel for a fair time in your early days wouldn't you, you know, you'd be a Methodist. And bearing in mind as I understand it that in those days the really strict Methodists, I mean, what was it, drink, music halls, theatres and things like that were totally abhorrent to a strict Methodist weren’t they.
R- Well, I wouldn't go so far as what you say. I mean the theatre was all right. But I mean drink was out. Drink was the main one and gambling at first. Drink and gambling were the two main things that they used to preach against. I mean the music-hall, because let's face it, I mean the Sunday School concert you know was the highlight of many a child's Sunday School going.
That's interesting, John, because I was talking to a gentleman who is 90, and he is a very strict Methodist. And he was saying that in his younger days in Darwen it was actually Darwen and then Blackburn, the taboos were drink, the theatre, the music halls and there was another one of course, gambling would be one of them wouldn't it. Gambling was probably the one he mentioned. But he said that they were very strict, it was very strictly observed. And he said that it wasn't until later years when the theatre began to gain a better reputation that the theatre became acceptable to a strict Methodist. Would, would you say that that had been the case in Rossendale?
R - Oh yes, oh very much so. Because I've mentioned before that my father used to take me to the theatre when he was delivering coke he used to kind of get a kind of free pass. And that there were certain weeks when he said he was going to the theatre and my mother’d say “Well you are not taking him!!” I mean there was something on that might have been ...
What sort of things were on at the theatre when you went with your fathers John?
R – Well mainly kind of variety shows, reviews. I can remember seeing Dracula ... Frightened me to death ... I used to look through my fingers.
(35 min)
But then of course you see, they'd have a season of repertory and there’d be plays on. Mind you, I would only be about seven or eight. I couldn't understand a lot of it. But I used to like to go. I’ll tell you who I believe once came, Harry Houdini, you
know the escapologist. I used to like things like that, I used to like variety shows. And some of these so called now famous names used to come, George Formby
came and quite a few of what you might call, they were minor celebrities in those days, but they'd be top of the bill. Aye, but pantomimes you know.
Oh that used to be a major event didn't it, I mean I think just about everybody went to the pantomime didn’t they at Christmas, aye.
R- Yes. Oh aye.
And can you remember the names of any of these plays in repertory? Can you remember any of the names of the plays? Do any of then strike your mind?
R- Yes there was one chap, I believe the name ... I know the second name's right, was, I’m not sure whether it were Derek Hamilton but they used to come and they’d stop for a season, about two months or three months. They were Hamilton, and I’m just trying to think, there was another one that used to come and stay for a while. Derek Hammersleigh. Hamilton and Hammersleigh.
They were like the names of the companies, the repertory company?
R - Oh yes. Aye, the repertory company.
And how about the plays that they did John, can you remember any of the titles?
(750)
R- Oh, East Lynne.
Mrs Gaskell.
R - Passing of the third floor back, that sticks in my mind. Now whatever it was about I couldn't tell you a word, but these are, East Lynne, Passing of the third floor back ... oh dear.
.Does Red Barn strike a chord?
R- Oh Maria Martin, oh yes, oh they were melodramas.
That's it, aye.
R- Aye, I can remember seeing Maria Martin, the murder in the Red barn and there was another famous one, what was that called?
Was there a Face at the Window, was that one of them?
R- That’s it, the Face at the Window, yes aye, that was one.
Not to be confused with the Face on the Bar Room Floor.
R- Oh no. The face at the Window, the Passing of the Third Floor Back, Maria Martin, East Lynne. I’m just trying to think, besides Dracula.
Tell me John, were these plays done in the local theatre or did they bring their own theatre with them?
R- No, they were done in the local theatre.
Yes. Which was?
R- The Palace at Rawtenstall.
Yes because there were some stock companies going round, some repertory companies going round who actually took their own wooden touring theatre with them and it was set up in one place for a couple of months and then dismantled and taken somewhere else. You know, that seems to have been quite common at one time.
R- Well, I can't just remember any theatres like that, but there used to be the circus, you know the travelling circus. And I have an idea that I've a very old print of where the market now stands, Rawtenstall Fair. In point of fact there is a song about that, you know?
Is there?
R- Oh aye, Mike Harding sings it. Rawtenstall Fair. I've forgotten just how it goes but it's about Rawtenstall ‘Come and see the fat girl’ and all this kind of thing. Oh, it's quite a good one, in point of fact we have a record of it, and we played it when we were with the disco as a diversion.
How about cinema, the cinematograph, or the kinematograph 1 mean…
R- Yes. In point of fact the thing is that there were two, there was one originally you see, which is the Pavilion now a Bingo hall and of course you used to go there. And then they built this plush picture house. When that was built it was quite something you know, it was the most up to date cinema in East Lancashire, specifically built do you know.
What year was that John, can you remember?
R- Pardon?
(800)( 40 min)
What year?
R- Well, now then, it would be in the 1920's. I’m just trying to think. No it would be in 1919, the war had finished it was just after the first world war, perhaps 1 should say early 1920's.
So when would you see your first film. Can you remember?
R- Well, the thing is that originally we used to get to go the Saturday afternoon matinee, 2d, occasionally. But, just after the first world war we had a minister at Longholme who was very progressive, a chap called Speight. Now, what he did ...
In point of fact I believe he went to Padiham after he left here, but he was a very progressive kind of minister, and what he did he got on to the local education authorities, and asked if the school children could come into Longholme schools and he’d show educational films. Oh yes, and he, actually in the school we had a proper chamber built to house a cinematograph.
What year was that John',
R- Oh, 1919 or 1920.
That must have been a very early use of educational films mustn’t it?
R- Well it was. And the thing is they used to bring like all the children of the upper classes from standard six and seven or depending on how many there were to get them all in. They used to come from St Mary's which was a Church of England school and St John's at Cloughfold, another Church of England school, Alder Grange which was the school that I went to, and St Paul's up the road you see? I mean it was as many as the room could accommodate. But he used to show them educational films. Now then it wouldn't be 1919 because I used to get rather annoyed, because the headmaster at the school he selected me to sit for a scholarship you see? And we used to have special tuition, you know these who were going in for scholarship, and always, well not always but on a lot of occasions when there was a film showing, he used to have them about once a month, you see we had to stop behind to do this special studying.
Aye, that would go hard.
R- So that would be eleven, I would be eleven then so that’d be 1920.
What sort of films would they be John?
(850)
R- Well they were educational films in as much as they'd be say about animals or about the sea. He might have say a film on Scotland or a film on Wales or a film on India or something like that. And then, occasionally he’d throw a two reel comedy in you know, just for spice. But in any case it was an event to go and see these films
free. Well, it was a diversion from going to school nine till four which you did and you were busy all the time except for fifteen minutes. You see you had a fifteen minute break in the morning and fifteen minutes in the afternoon, but I mean you were busy all the time.
Yes and of course obviously those were silent films.
R- Oh yes, aye.
Was any commentary read with them or were they just shown?
R- Oh yes, he’d give the commentary would Speight. I mean somebody would be showing the film, or in many times he showed the film himself of course. Your teachers were with you so you were well behaved. And the thing is that he’d more or less a full size screen. It was nearly as big as that wall, and the projector was at the back of the room and it was quite a large room.
(45 min)
Would that be electric, would it be an electric projector? You know, electric light.
R- Oh yes.
So well I mean, 1918 is fairly early for electricity.
R- Well as I say they had to have this special chamber built. You know the films were celluloid in those days you know.
Yes, that’s it.
R- And they had this special chamber. He had, he was a very progressive bloke. In point of fact we had a cricket team, we’d a football team, we’d hockey, we’d tennis and we had our own field.
At the chapel?
R- Yes, they had their own field. Let me say they rented it and one chap wanted to give it to them but they wouldn't accept it.
Why ever not?
R- Well because of the upkeep you see.
Aye. Yes.
R- Oh they’d hockey, he was a very progressive bloke.
Very good John.
SCG/31 August 2003
6,470 words.