THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON APRIL 11TH 1980 IN THE WRAPPER ROOM AT SPRING VALE MILL, CHARLES LANE, HASLINGDEN. THE INFORMANT IS GLENYS KIRBY, CONDENSER MINDER. THE INTERVIEWER IS MARY HUNTER.
Now then Glenys, have you always worked at Spring Vale?
R- No.
Where did you work before you came here then?
R - Rossendale General Hospital.
Oh, so you haven’t always been in spinning?
R- No.
What did you do at the hospital?
R- Nursing Auxiliary.
And how long did you do that for?
R- Seven years.
From leaving school?
R- No.
Come on then, tell me.
R- I went in the cotton mill when I left school. I didn't want to, I wanted to go nursing then but I had to go in the cotton mill because we had a big family and I was the oldest and me mother needed the money you know.
And the cotton industry then was better money?
R- Than nursing yes. Yes definitely very poor money when I left school in the nursing career. I forget just what it were you know but it wasn’t very much at all.
So you did that for how long, nursing? Did you say seven years?
R – Yes, but I was married then. I went into cotton from leaving school up to getting married.
What did you do in the cotton industry first of all then?
R- Doffing for ring spinners.
So you haven’t always been in the condenser trade?
R – No. But I've done that a lot you know. I went doffing for the ring spinners first and then I went condensing. I learnt that at Flash Mill before this firm that has it now took it over, condensing.
So you've always been here when you have been in the cotton industry?
R- No, I worked at Syke Side Mill, that were a cotton mill, when I left school and I worked at Clough End Mill on a Permo spinning unit. I can’t remember where I went when that closed down. I went to Ivanovich’s (?) candlewick bedspreads then, folding there for a while. Then I got married and didn’t work for about twelve months I think and then I went back to Syke Side, condensing again. Then I went working up at the hospital like I said and then I came back here. I’ll have been seven years now in September.
So you’ve got your chance to go back nursing. So what stopped you after seven years?
R – Well. It were week ends more than anything, the children were young you know and we seemed to be working more and more week ends. It weren’t really working in with family life. Me husband were working all week and then he were having to mind the children all week end while I worked up there so I decided to pack it in for a while. Maybe me being made redundant, I might go back you know.
(100)
Good for you. And your children being that much older?
R- Oh yes, Collette, me daughter is seventeen and my son’s fifteen so…
Well you’ve got a chance now haven’t you. When you were in the cotton industry before you were married you were mainly in the spinning side, in the spinning room weren’t you?
R- Spinning and condensing, yes.
So when you came here that was the first time you had been in the card room was it?'
R – No, I worked in the card room before at condensing , when I finished with ring spinning.
Were your parents in the spinning industry?
R- No, me father were a weaver and me mother worked in the sewing room.
In the manufacturing, clothing manufacturing industry?
R - In a cotton mill.
Go on, tell me what they do in a sewing room.
R – That’s the finishing room like, you know, where they hem all the blankets and all the sheets and put them in cellophane ready for going to the shop or whatever you know.
And presumably your parents are locals to this valley?
(5 min)
R- Yes, we’ve lived here all my life, my parents as well.
Do you think that's what has happened to most people here in the Rossendale Valley? Once they are here they stay here and it’s very much a community sort of a valley or did many people leave?
R - I think it’s a community type valley, you know? I think you could say that anyway. Perhaps a few leave but may be more so now than in time gone by you know. 'Cause it were a prosperous cotton town when I was at school was Haslingden but now there is hardly anything you know, it’s just dying out altogether.
(150)
That’s more or less all there was to do when I left school, cotton mill, slipper works you know and things like that. Unless you had a good education you know? And people tended to have bigger families I think then than what they do now, you know.
Are all your family, by that I mean your relations, in this valley too?
R - No. Me mother lives down at Plymouth now and me sister lives over in Ireland. They were here up to, me sister were here up to recently you know.
Do you think most families will have what's called the extended family, the relations also in the valley you know, with the grandma, the aunts, the uncles?
R- Oh yes, definitely.
So perhaps your family is a bit of an exception to what seems to be normal in Rossendale,
R - Oh yes, very true.
You mentioned something a little while ago about large families and you thought that people in your parents generation had larger families. What sort of difference do you think that made as far as leaving the valley was concerned? Because you mentioned this in that context.
(200)
R - Well, people hadn't the money then to leave the valley you know. I think they were better living days than what there are .. we used to entertain, we used to enjoy ourselves better than children do today, we’d make our own entertainment you know. But these days they don't seem to be able to do, they just want money and they want .. you know, they've always got to have something to do, if they’ve nothing to do they’ll go and vandalise and what have you. Whereas in our days there were no such thing, not much anyway, not much vandalizing and what not because we used to make our own entertainment even in the streets you know when we played out. We’d, we'd make games up and play games and what have you. May be knock on a few doors and run away but I think that didn't harm anybody you know? Not like they, not like they do today.
So although there wasn't that much money you say they were happier days.
R- Definitely yes.
But because of the emphasis on money nowadays you don’t think that children play in the same way they used to.
R - They definitely don't play the same no.
Are your children going to find different jobs to the ones that you and your husband have had?
R - Well me daughter’s hoping to go in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Nursing Corps, she goes for an exam next week. They’ve passed her application. I don’t think she will go in while she is eighteen though, so that’ll be a year if she passes her exams and her medical.
And your son?
R- I don't know what he’s going to do yet, he is not very clever really. He had bronchial asthma from being young, he missed a lot of school you know. Although he is a lot better now I really don't know what he is going to do.
But they haven’t considered anything to do with textiles?
(10 min)(250)
R- No, I don't want… Me daughter is working in a cotton mill now but it’s a finishing works you know, where they do all sewing, machining and folding sheets. There’s no condensing or spinning or weaving or anything there, it’s just like a finishing place where they raise all the sheets and so on, fold and [pack them].
Has she ever been down with you to here?
R – Yes. She didn’t think much about it really, she thought it were dirty you know and noisy.
Whereas in fact this is quite a clean mill isn't it?
R - It is, compared to some it is yes. But she didn’t think so you know. That place where she works, I believe that it’s very nice. Light and airy and they have the wireless going where we couldn’t do that anyway because you wouldn’t be able to hear it even if we had it.
And is your husband in the cotton trade?
R- Not now but he used to be a mule spinner, but he works in the building trade now, outside work.
And, and did he change direction because of the decline in the industry?
R - No, I don’t think that was the main reason you know. I think he just felt like he wanted a change. He’s been working outside now for about ten or twelve years, something like that. Well, twelve year ago cotton was still pretty good you know? It’s over this last five, six years that it's been going down fast you know.
What do you think about the atmosphere of the place working here?
R- Oh, it’s happy, we all have a laugh you know because you have to do really otherwise your days would be boring wouldn’t they? You know, just doing the same old thing all the time. We have some fun, we have a good laugh.
Yes, it’s certainly something that impressed me when I first came down here.
R- Everybody is friendly you know. Yes, very friendly.
How important do you think the breaks are when you go and meet in the canteen?
R- I think they are important, because you see people work in different rooms. Well, we all get together then and get to know one another’s little grumbles and problems and all have a laugh you know.
You'd notice that quite a few people in fact don't stay, do they. They come down and get whatever they want and then go again.
R- Well, that’s mostly the mule spinners because they are on piece work you see. They've got to keep the mules going to earn their wage and they can’t stop very long anyway because there's two on a pair, while one’s out brewing up, having a bit of lunch or that it’d be the other one that’s left running both mules you know. So they can’t stop very long if they do stop.
Is It just the mule spinners that are on piece work there?
R- Yes, at this mill.
And is there much overtime here?
R- There is none now, but there used to be for the men you know. For the devil hole and blending room, they used to work overtime quite a lot at one time. Well, up to last year, up to the end of last year. But you see, with us being made redundant they’ve stopped that now. They stopped all overtime just after Christmas.
You called it the devil hole. What's it really called do you know?
R – That’s what it’s called as far as I know. That’s all I've ever known it to be called.
It’s interesting that this in fact is its name because it suggests something that's really awful doesn't it?
R- It does yes, but .. I don*t know why they call it that, but that's its name you know.
Why do you think the… Well, it’s part of the blending process isn’t it. Why do you think the devils are called the devils?
R - 1 don't know.
You've always accepted the term.
R – Yes.
Because the carding machines and the scutchers are their proper names aren’t they?
R- Yes, I think that's their proper name, I’m sure.
That’s interesting. You mentioned that overtime stopped at the end of last year. How much inkling did you all have that things were grinding slowly to a halt?
(350)
R - Well quite a lot really. Although we didn't get to know till March that it were coming I heard before last Christmas off an outsider that doesn’t even work for this firm that it were closing you know? People outside the place got to know more than we get that work here you know.
What sort or rumours did you hear?
R - That it were closing down. It were going to close, Spring Vale were going to close down.
You didn’t hear anything about anybody taking over or what it was to become or anything?
R- Well we did yes, we heard that Wells’s was taking over, the firm that’s got Syke Side Mill now, at Road End. I don’t know whether they are or they aren’t even now.
And are they cotton people?
R- I think they make curtains and what have you.
So it's weaving is it, perhaps?
R- I don't know whether they have any weaving or not. I don’t really know because I've never been there you know. But I know they make curtain fabrics and what not. Whether they actually make them there or finish them off or what I don’t know.
Do you think now they’re closing down this mill, and perhaps others will follow, will have much effect on the feeling in Haslingden.
R- Well definitely because you see there’s, for what's closing down and there isn't enough Industry coming in to take the place you know. There's going to be a lot of people out of work because they just can’t get jobs. I mean I tried this last couple of weeks a few times for jobs you know and you just can't get them. There is that many out of work they’re snapped up in no time.
(400)
R- I don't remember what it were like in the 1930s. But they reckon that it's going back to that you know, that there's just going to he no jobs, people are going to he queuing up for jobs, any job that's going you know?
And people'll take a job rather than worry what the job’s about, just so that they've got a job.
R- So that they've got a job yes.
Have you ever had any trouble with the cotton dust?
R- No I haven’t. But some people have you know, they’ve got that chest with working in cotton. The only thing that bothers my chest is smoking too much.
Yes, well that’s different. All your cloths and your hands and everything get covered with cotton [dawn] from the cards doesn’t it.
R- Yes.
How much does that bother you? Or is it something that you just don’t notice?
R- Oh it’s annoying you know, but you just wear old clothes, don’t put anything good on to come to work.
Have a quick brush over your hair when you get back in, yes?
R- Yes. And before you go out at night just try to brush all the cotton off that’s you know, stuck to you.
The noise that we can probably hear at the moment is the steam going through the heating pipes. It is now twenty five past ten in the morning and you’ve just said to me that it’s the first time it's come through this morning.
R- Yes.
But what time did you clock in this morning?
R- Half past seven. It were really cold, really cold.
And doesn't that have quite an effect on the actual work that you do?
R- Yes it does. The machinery doesn’t run as well when it's cold like that. They will run in the card room but if it’s really cold in the mule room the mules won’t run. They can’t. They can’t run the cards if it is cold.
Because they have that heat turned down.
R- Yes. And the machinery, the mules themselves won’t run. They won’t when it’s cold, no. It's got to be a certain temperature, although it's usually warmer in the mule room than anywhere, than what it is in the card room you know because we have stone floors and glass windows over so it’s really cold in there at times. Where the spinners, theirs is wooden floors you know and they haven’t as many windows. Their
Windows are at the side where ours are overhead you know?
(450)(20 min)
Because it was, that was a weaving shed wasn't it?
R- At one time yes. Long before I came though.
Would you be able to do your work do you think If you’d, if you had another type of floor than stone flags?
R- Well we have done you know. There’s odd times when we’ve all stopped the machines and said we weren't doing it but it’s only been an odd time. Mostly we're working you know.
Do you think there would be anything to stop the cold? There being a different sort of floor? Could the whole process work if it was say a wooden floor, or not?
R- It depends. If it was a wooden floor and there wasn't those windows overhead it’d be a lot warmer, definitely.
And you could still do the work? The machinery would be all right?
R - Oh yes.
So in the winter, what’s it like, heating wise?
R- Oh, still mornings, it's really cold you know, it's like working in a fridge.
Does the boiler not come on then before you come down?
R- Well sometimes it fails you know. It should do. It should come on early but if it fails and it doesn’t come on it's really cold.
And what about summer when you’ve got a really hot spell.
R- Well, funnily enough it doesn’t get too hot in there even in summer. It has to be really, really hot before it’s unbearable in there you know, in the card room.
Do they whitewash the northern lights are they called?
R- No. I think they've done them about once while I've been working here that's all. Because like I say, it’s not unbearable. Like we don't have that many good summers really do we.
(500)
No. Now we'll have a look at the photographs I think now Glenys and we’ll start perhaps on number 33 because that seems to be where your work begins. So picture number 33 in Spinning Folio One. Now then, what’s happening on that photograph?
R- Well, I work in an alley, a long alley with 23 carding machines. Me and another lady run these between us. She minds eleven and I mind twelve.
What end of the carding machine is this? Is this the back?
R- No, this is the front.
That's the front right.
R- Yes, these are the fronts. The back is where the laps are put on to come through the machine.
What sort of things are happening in this machine?
R- Well, the cotton's being thinned down and it comes through these rubbers at the front where they’re rubbed into ends and there’s thirty ends to a bobbin.
So really that’s the last process before it goes up to the spinning room. Am I right?
R- Yes these bobbins that we make go on a rack [conveyor] to the spinning room.
And is that the rack at the top there?
R- Yes, that’s the rack running over the top with the full bobbins on and the empty ones coming back.
So it's partially mechanised anyway.
R- Oh yes.
And these bobbins on the rack at the front of the machine are the empty bobbins waiting to be put on once these bottom ones are full?
R- That’s right.
Yes so you are well prepared that morning or whenever that was taken.
R – Yes. Oh we always have them on the cards ready to just drop in when we take the full ones out.
Do you always start the day at a certain stage in the process or did you start where you left on the previous night.
R - We just start where we've left off the previous night.
So it’s not a full bobbin or an empty one or anything?
R- No there can be some full and some nearly empty.
And how do you cope with having twelve at once? Presumably they are not all finishing at once.
(25 min)(550)
R- Well actually if they do all finish at once it's easier. Because you can get all your full ones out and your empty ones in and you’re straight for three quarters of an hour.
But presumably while you are getting them all straight there are some that are lying idle?
R- No.
You can do it all that quickly then?
R- Yes.
So how long …?
R- But you see, you can’t always have them all straight, because sometimes the ends break down on a bobbin when it's half full and you have to take it out then and find all those ends and straighten the bobbin up.
What happens if an end goes down inside or does that not happen?
R – Down?
Inside the drum.
R – Sometimes they drop down the dividers. Well we just pick them out again.
And what do you call the dividers?
R - These are the dividers, where this iron bar’s running across the front of the drum.
So Immediately the cotton comes out of the drum it can sometimes can go down there and that’s what you call the divider is it?
R- Yes.
Oh I see, right. So we’ve exhausted that one?
R- I think so yes.
Right. Number 34. Now where are we here?
R- These are the back of the cards that I work on. These are where the lap carriers put the laps on for us. There are two laps to each card.
You say they put them on for us, do you mean somebody carries them down to put them on for you?
R- Yes and they actually put them on, we don't. We don’t mess with them, we don’t deal with the laps at all.
Is that because they are heavy?
R- They are heavy for a woman, yes.
And is there somebody specific who does that?
R- The grinders put the laps on yes.
And where do these laps come from?
R- They’re laps off the Derby Doubler.
So that’s the process that happens before carding?
R- Before we get them yes.
Well I should call it not just carding should I. Condenser carding? Because there’s breaker cards as well isn’t there.
R- Yes, for the Doubler.
Does it matter, there’s the second one on, there’s a full one and one that’s nearly empty does that matter?
R- Yes because when these back ones are empty they pull the front one to the back and put the full one at the front.
For any particular reason?
R- Well it’s easier to do it that way because if you’ve a big lap at the back you’d have to lift the other one over it to get the front one on.
(600)
And this trolley, sort of half way down the alley. Are these….?
R- Those are the laps, where they stack the laps ready to come on the cards.
Ready to come on the cards? Oh I see. And in the big drums it’s been fluffed about?
R - Oh yes.
It doesn’t stay in those laps?
R – Oh no. It goes through rollers, wire rollers you know.
Draws the fibres out?
R – Yes.
What about the lighting in your shed.
R- Well there are old fashioned lights, just the ordinary bulbs with the green shades you know.
Green for any reason?
R – No.
And is that sufficient lighting?
R- Well it could be better. It is just sufficient but it could be a lot better.
And do you always have them on?
R – No, only Winter time when it’s dark mornings and afternoons.
Because you've got the lights above, the glass above you. What's this metal grill down the middle, do you know? No, it's not a grill, it seems to be a cover plate of some sort.
R – That’s where all the waste cotton goes from the side pipes.
How is it? Yes, well you could perhaps explain that on number 35 better can you? Number thirty five, it's still that way, isn’t it?
R- Yes. Like I said, there’s thirty ends to a bobbin, on the actual bobbin. But there’s also two more ends that goes down those side pipes.
At each side.
R - At each side of the card yes.
I think probably later an we can see those side pipes a bit more easily. And they're sucked off ...
R - Yes. And they go into a side end machine, what’s called the side end machine, that’s cleaned out every week.
Where is this side end machine?
R – That’s against the Derby Doubler.
So they're sucked off from there and carried down this piping underneath these metal plates that we've seen at 34?
R- Yes.
And they’re taken to…
R - A machine, the side end machine that's against the Derby Doubler.
Alongside it? .
(650)(30 min)
R- Yes.
Yes. I’ve not seen that or not been aware that. You’ll have to show me that afterwards. So on 35 we are now at the front of the machine?
R- Yes.
Andy and these rollers, I believe they are leather are they not?
R- Rubbers.
Rubber.
R- Rubbers, they are not called rollers they are called rubbers.
And is it made of rubber or of leather?
R- Leather.
Is it leather?
R- Yes it’s leather but they call them rubbers.
They call them rubbers. And I gather that these move sideways against each other.
R- Yes.
Do you know what that’s for, why it’s done?.
R- To make them come out fine.
But there is no twist being put in it is there?
R- There is no twist in the cards, no. That is put in by the mules.
Yes. And these oblong wires, they are guide wires are they?
R - Guide wires, yes, that’s what they are called yes.
And these ends, they can be broken very easily can they?
R- Oh yes.
So you have to keep your fingers well out.
R- Yes.
What happens if one down go down?
R- Well we piece them. We’d pick it up, get hold of it and just piece it up again, put it through the guide wire and on to the bobbin.
And you don’t have to actually twist the thing, you just put it through again.
R- Right.
And when that goes to the mule spinners, when that point comes on his mule what happens? Will that end go down?
R- Yes. And then he finds it on the bobbin and puts it back through.
So if you get chased at the end of the day you know you’ve sent a few bad bobbins up that day.
R – Yes.
On the front bobbin and the bobbin just from the cylinder there seems to be metal strips but they presumably aren’t.
R- That’s the doffer where the ends come through and go through the dividers.
So in fact that’s not steel bands. That’s a gap there.
R- No they are leather bands that you can see round that doffer.
(700)
Leather are they? And, and the one right at the very front, the one that the bobbin’s sat in?
R - They are wooden rollers.
Wooden rollers? And are those gaps then that I just thought were steel bands?
R- Those are just gaps yes.
Why are they not solid?
R- Because they help to shape each individual end while the bobbins running.
Yes, I am with you. They’ve two upright metal supports.
R- Yes.
Is that the bobbin rack?
R- Yes, we put full bobbins on there and drop the empty bobbin into the card.
So you haven’t actually got your empty ones ready on there have you.
R- No.
There is an old sacking at the bottom of the, what did you call this here?
R - Bobbin roller.
At the bottom of the bobbin roller there is what looks like old sacking. Am I right?
R- Yes. This is the card that's first through the door as you go into the card room. And that’s to stop the draught blowing under the card and bringing all the ends down.
So it’s only on the one that’s going to get the draught?
R- Yes.
Thirty six. You've got an empty bobbin on the rack there so that shows that more clearly. Can you see the side, what did you call it? The side sheet or…. Where the ends are sucked off. Can you see that on there or not?
R- Just there, just at the bottom of the doffer against this metal box at the end of the steel bar.
Oh I see. There are two steel bars are there not?
R- Yes, that’s it.
You can just see the first sign of the thread coming through can’t you.
R- This second steel bar, that’s the safety bar so that when you put your fingers into the dividers they don't get caught in the rubbers. You can’t put them far enough down to get caught in the rubbers.
And that’s the point at which they can break, but more normally they're breaking down at this front end, are they?
R- Yes, they break down at the front more, but as they're coming on to the bobbin.
(35 min) (750)
So it’s sucked off just against this metal box here.
R- Yes, and at the other side as well.
There seems to be some problems up there or is it? Just as they’re coming through these guide wires there seem to be a lot of bits of cotton or is it just the photograph?
R- No, it's bits of cotton, it sticks to these guide wires. We have to clean these on Fridays when we stop.
Once a week.
R- Yes.
Do you do anything else on a weekly basis?
R - We have to clean all the cards, we have to clean all the sides And every day we go down on our hands and knees and take, well we call fly, lot of fluff that gets underneath the front of the card. We get down on our hands and knees with a long brush and sweep all that out.
Is that called anything special?
R- It’s just call it 'taking the fly out' you know?
So cold knee caps!
R- Yes.
You’ve got an empty bobbin on the rack there, ready. Now I’ve seen a lot of bobbins with cotton waste on but that one hasn’t.
R- Well, I’ve piked that one off.
Pike it?
R- Pike, yes. We have a steel piker with a sharp and, and we pike all the cotton waste off the empty bobbins as they come from the spinners, the spinners send them back on the rack from upstairs.
And why do they have some on.
R- Well they can't run every little bit off. Because as we change the bobbin we just throw the ends over so they wouldn’t run off completely off the mule.
Very good. Picture 37. You look as if you're busy there.
R- Yes. Well this is a bobbin that I’ve taken out which is not full.
When you say not full, what do you mean?
R- Well the bobbin isn't ready, wasn’t ready for taking out but I have to take it out because some of the ends had broken down, too many to piece up. And I’ve had to take that bobbin out and on this I’m finding the ends that had broken down and making it straight so that it can go on the rack and go upstairs to the spinners and they’re wound off.
So you’re rolling it off until you've got thirty ends?
R- Yes.
Do you have to count it, or can you tell at a glance?
R- Oh I can tell at a glance. Because each end's individual you know.
And presumably what you've pulled off will go into the same as the piked waste?
R- That’s it yes.
(40 min)
And go back through the blending process again. Very good. What’s this sack here?
R- Yes. Well, that’s what I use for kneeling on when I get down on the floor to take the fly out.
Ah I see, you’ve got it all worked out. On the top of these cards here there seems to be a big pipe or tube, well a pipe on every single one.
(800)
R- These? These are hooks…
No, the pipes.
R- The pipes yes. Well, that's for the dust extractors, you know to extract some of the dust that would actually be in the air. If these weren’t on it’d be a lot dirtier than what it is but for these.
And you did mention the hooks, what are those?
R - Those are for the grinders to use for when they lift the covers up, these wooden covers on the cards, they hook them on to there to keep them up so that they won*t have to actually hold them you know, their both hands are free to take the rollers out when they're doing the grinding.
Oh I see. Short sleeves there, so I think that was summer time was it?
R – Yes. I don’t think it was too bad that day yes.
Thirty eight.
R- This is where I've just taken a bobbin out, a full bobbin and I’m carrying it down the alley to put on the rack. There is an empty one just coming back so I’ll take that off and put this full one in it’s place.
And would you be able to lift that empty one up with one hand?
R – Yes I can.
But you are wanting
R - I don't like… The lady that works with me she can’t do that you know but I've just got used to doing it 1 suppose, you know?
How long are these bobbins?
R - How long? About three foot.
Three foot?
R - Two and a half?
I would have thought they might have been longer actually but you certainly had to balance it, hold it mid-way hadn’t you? So that you can hold them with one hand. Let's measure one afterwards.
R- Yes. About half way. If I have it at arm’s length, just about half hanging over, oh me shoulder at the other side!
Are these heavy those full bobbins?
R- No they're not very heavy no. Quite light really. To look at, someone who didn’t know might think they were heavy but they’re not, they’re not heavy.
But the centre of the bobbin is wood is it not?
R- No. Some of them are but most are metal.
So you've got two metal ends and wood and some metal. And I would think that that’s almost the hardest part of the job isn’t it?
R- Yes.
The actual bobbin itself without the cotton.
R- Well they’re very light really. It’s only this metal, not solid, one or two of them are probably, but most of them are hollow inside.
What about these two trolleys?
R- These two trucks are what we put the empty bobbins on so that we can pike the cotton.
(850)
Oh I see, there are grooves aren’t there so you can hold the maximum of three by the looks of it.
R- Yes and some more on top if we think it’s necessary you know.
So that holds all the cotton waste to go back to the blending process?
R - And these are emptied.
By yourself?
R- No, one of the men out of the devil hole comes and takes these and empties them in the devil hole.
Are you responsible for both sides of the alley or just one side?
R- No, both sides. Just twelve cards. They have five on one side and seven on the other and then the lady that works with me has six on one side and five on the other.
So have you got the front of one set against the front of the others, or do you have to go round?
R - No, they are facing one another.
(45 min)
Yes you’ve got two fronts facing you in your alley.
R - Which we sweep this alley every day as well after we've taken the fly out we brush the cards down and all these wooden covers, and then we sweep the alley up.
Very good. Now picture 39. There you are at it.
R- Yes. This where I’ve taken this bobbin, this empty bobbin off the rack and placed it at the side, well, I’ve put the full one back on.
They go into slots do they?
R- Yes. Into grooves on the rack.
I had to lift one out upstairs in the mule room and I didn't make a very splendid job of it.
R- Well it’s like anything else. When you get used to it it’s easy.
And of course they were thinking it was going to be peanuts for me because I am tall but it’s not just that is it, it's the knack of doing it.
R- Oh yes, once you’ve got the knack it’s easy.
What happens if the bobbin rack’s full?
R – Well, it’s not very often it is but if it is and the mule’s not running we usually stop for a while until they get done with them.
So you don’t hang on and make a store of them on the floor?
R – Not normally no. I have done these last few weeks because we haven’t been working at Friday in the card room with us being made redundant. But a couple of mules have still been running at Friday even though we’ve been stopped so we’ve had to stack a few bobbins up so that they wouldn’t run short you know, before we started work again at Monday.
Right, has that exhausted that?
R- Yes, I think so.
(900)
There is a very large overhead pipe on the other side of the bobbin rack, what’s a that?
R- Oh I don't know what that’s for. That's one of the dust pipes.
Oh, this from the top of the carding machine?
R- Yes.
And that’s carrying it to where?
R- They have big dust bags in the scutching hole. I think they go in there, I’m not sure you know but I think so.
Right, 39.
R - Now these bobbins in the alley that you can see on the floor have all been taken off the rack and piked then we store those in the alley, the empty ones so that we can just pick them up and put them on the cards, ready for changing over.
SCG/24 June 2003
6,567 words.