THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON THE 1st OF AUGUST 1979 AT MARY WILKIN’S HOME, 10 MOORVIEW IN SALTERFORTH. THE INFORMANT IS MARY WILKIN, WEAVER AND THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Now then, we'll go on now, on picture 18 you are at the other side of your loom aren't you?
R – Yes. I'm round the back of the loom.
Yes, what are you doing there?
R - Tying spare ends up. Yes, I am tying spare ends up. Some warps, they'd have, they have spare ends, a lot, and some warps wouldn’t have any at all. And some come up, you know, when your, when the bean's running. In that case you left them .. you run ‘em round your beam. You’ve to keep an eye on ‘em or they can get fast. Or else you’ve, sometimes if any end’s drawing off your warp and you can’t find it you put a spare end in until your original end came up and then you put that one back in and tie your spare end back up on your, on the run round.
Aye. So that's what you meant when you said last week that you'd to keep an eye on the back of your loom as well as your front.
R - Oh yes. It's important to keep an eye on the back of your looms. A lot of trouble starts in your, round the back of a loom.
What would you do if you had no spare ends and an end went down?
(50)
R - Well on a lot of them up at Bancroft you could take a side end ‘cause your side ends are always double. Well you could take one of those out providing it weren’t too far in and put that in as your end until your original end come up and then you take that one out and put it back in, back where you got it from, at the side.
Yes, and if you couldn’t put a side end in, what did you do then?
R - You just have to let it run whereas down at Johnson’s you put a pirn, a bobbin down t’back, a bobbin and weft you know?
Yes.
R - And use that as a spare end.
Have I seen people running at Bancroft with an old shuttle on the floor?
R- Yes, that’s what they do, yes. You use that then. When your end comes up you put that one in, take your spare end out, and put your original end back in and carry on.
Aye, that's it. Nineteen Mary. Tell me what you're doing there.
R - Taking some ends up, taking them up through the healds. Yes, that's what I’m doing.
Yes, what’s that you've got in your hand there.
R - That's me reed hook, that’s me reed hook.
And what are you doing with your right hand?
R - Just opening the healds, you know, so that I can see what I am doing. Every weaver needs a reed hook and a pair of scissors, they can’t weave without them, very important. Very important indeed.
Aye. Very important. We'll go on to, go on to 20, because there …
R - Now there I have taken it through the healds, and now I’m putting it in the reed and it looks like I am .. I'm opening the dent with my right
(100)
hand, and taking it up. I've got me reed hook through the dent with me left hand. I’m going to hook it through.
Yes. That’s it. What's on the top of this loom, in front of you? There is a bunch of ends hung over isn't there? What are them for Mary?
R - Yes. That’s beating. Them’s the spare ends for piecing your ends when your end comes down. You take one of those and you piece your end and then take it up again.
Yes, so if it isn't long enough to take up properly you just tie a piece of that on to make it longer.
R – Yes. Tie a piece up, yes.
That's it, aye. And on to number 21.
R- Yes, and I have taken it up there. I've pushed the loom back. It looks like I'm fastening the end. I've .. I think I'm fastening this under the temple.
You were doing, you are right. I remember that particularly, you were trapping it under the temple. If it's near the temple, if it's near the side, that’s a good way of keeping it in place, isn't it?
R - It is yes.
Yes, I remember that particularly Mary, when you were doing that, you were, you were trapping it under the temple.
R – Yes. That’s what I’d be doing. Yes, twenty-two, ...
Now that's, that's just the same thing again isn't it?
R - Yes, from a different view. I've taken the end up through the healds ... I am about to take it up, I’ll be taking it up through the reed. Right?
Yes, that's it, aye. Aye, weavers, what the weaver did most of. Now then, 23. Tell me what that is.
(150)
(5 min)
R- That's your pick clock.
What was that for Mary?
R - I have one of those on every loom and when your loom's running that's running and [counting] how many picks you have on. That's how many, that determines your wage, and how much you've earned off your loom. You get so many picks off each loom.
Yes, now when you talk about a pick, that’s when the shuttle's gone twice through the loom, isn't it? Or is it once?
R – No, once.
Once.
R- But that doesn’t turn over [every pick] I think it turns over every fifty. I think you should put your hand on top of your picking stick and it picks, I think it picks fifty, I think Dorothy told me once it went fifty times and that should change that one. And then at the end of the week they take, at Bancroft they take the first two numbers down and they'd have so many picks on, that’s what you have, what you are doing off that loom. The more picks you got on, the more [wage] you had off ...
So you were paid, you were paid a basic wage and then a pick rate on top?
R - You were paid on your clocks. Yes.
Of course the pick clock was a thing that was put in, and it was going to do the weavers a lot of good, and it never actually did them any good really did it? It didn't make any big difference to their wages.
R- No but you just, you get the same more or less every week, whereas of course if you were… they used to pay you on your piece .. if you didn't get a piece off you wouldn’t get paid for that loom, you know?
[Mary is flagging up the big improvement that pick clocks brought for the weavers. A weaver on piece rates with bad warps in could find they had no wage at the end of the week. This is covered comprehensively elsewhere in the archive. 78/AC/9 has a good description.]
That's it Mary. Now then, last picture, number 24.
(200)
R - Having me dinner ...
Having your dinner. Now then, nowadays very few people eat their meals at the place of work. Why did you stay by your looms instead of going into the canteen?
R - _Well, they hadn't really got a canteen there, it weren't ... well they had, it was called [the canteen].. but it weren't clean. And you only had half an hour for dinner anyway, so it was easier to stop there, have a cup of tea and a sandwich and a read and go and get ready for work again.
That's it. You always had a clean tablecloth anyway didn't you Mary?
R - Oh aye, always had a clean tablecloth, yes.
Aye. Do you a do you have your dinner at your loom at Johnson’s?
R - Well I work through .. I do, yes I work through me dinner hour though, because . of the buses. [getting away early to catch the bus home]
What do you mean? Oh, with being on electric motors ... ?
R - Well yes because the shed’s running all the time down there because they are shift workers you see. So the shed’s running all the time.
So you don’t stop for your dinner at Johnson's?
R – No.
So you start, what time in the morning?
R - Half seven,
And work right through till…
R - About four o’clock, yes.
By gum Mary, you're a glutton for punishment. Eh .... anyway, thank you very much Mary. That's ..
R – You’re welcome.
That's it, that's described them. Of course all this is gone now, it's all finished. Is it a good job it's gone? You know?
(250)
R - I suppose in a way it is, although we had some good times there. But it were out of date, it weren't ... they were in at a loss I suppose. We thought it was a shame to see a place, to close down, but it's just a sign of the times isn't it, these days?
Aye. Sign of the times. Right, well thanks very much Mary anyway.
[P.S - This was the finish of this tape and in point of fact the finish of the taping with Mary Wilkin and I'd just like to add a postscript. It's not something that I normally do, but the reason why this has been such a brief coverage of Mary is that there were certain difficulties. One of the things about taping people is that it's no use thinking
that you can go in and be a disruptive influence in their lives and still get meaningful stuff out of them. And so, obviously, the thing you've got to do is try and not be disruptive. Now as a matter of fact, Mary's .husband thought that two sessions of one tape each was quite enough and as a matter of fact when I made the last piece of tape, which is on this tape, he was stood over us. Very sad really, I'd had liked to have spent a lot more time with Mary. I'm also sad about Mary in the respect that she is working far too hard, and she doesn't look well at all. They have no children, they have a large Alsatian dog which anybody that's listened to the tapes will realise ... and they are both working. I don't really know what they’re both working so hard for. It's very sad. Mary doesn’t look well. I think a lot of her and I’m worried about her but there you are, there is nothing I can do about it. And these are only personal opinions anyway. But what I would like people in the future who listen to this tape to realise is that there were certain difficulties and that we did the best we could in the time that was allowed to us.]
This postscript was written in 1979 and not added later.
SCG/29 January 2003
1891 words.