Greta Davies. Voices from the Factory Floor
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00:08 Could you give me your ... date of birth?
28/6/48.
Thank. Can you tell me a bit about your background, your parents, where you’re from originally?
I was born and brought up in a small village called Glan-yr-Afon, not far from Corwen, I was one of nine children, and I’ve always lived in the village.
Nine children – you were a big family then?
Yes, nine children, we were.
What did your parents do? Were they farmers?
No, mam was at home, and dad went around with an engine, went round different farms with an engine.
So you had eight siblings, and you were one of nine.
Four brothers and four sisters.
What was it like growing up in a large family?
Oh, it was lovely, very nice. No, it was lovely being part of a large family.
Did you live in a big house?
No, in a normal council house.
Did you all go to the same school?
Yes, the primary school in this village, but it’s shut now, Llawr y Betws School, and from there to Ysgol y Bala.
Were you in the same class as some of your brothers and sisters?
No. I’m closest to the younger ones.
How many years are there between your eldest sibling and you?
Oh, there are sixteen years between me and the eldest, he had left school by the time I was there. I wasn’t in school the same time as any of my brothers and sisters.
Were you a close family?
Oh yes, very close. There was lots of fun.
03:15 How old were you when you left school?
Fifteen.
Did everybody leave aged fifteen?
Yes, yes.
And what did you do?
I remember the first job I had in a hotel in Corwen called the Owain Glyndwr, cleaning bedrooms there, and from there I went to the milk factory in Corwen. I was there for over twelve years.
Right. And what did you do in the milk factory?
Made cheese. Yes, made cheese. I finished there to raise my children and when the youngest was old enough to start at Ysgol y Bala, I went to work in the cafe in the village with my mother, and was there for ten years.
04:15 When did you get married – what year was it?
1972.
And how old were you?
24.
So you stopped working when you got married?
Yes, and I stopped to raise the children, three children, and I was at home for about ten years. And I got work, as I said, in the village cafe – after that closed down I got work at the Ackroyds factory in the Bala.
Right, what job did your husband do?
Hefin, my husband, worked in Ivor Williams’ factory in Cynwyd, making trailers. Hefin was in the factory for over thirty years.
Was he a local boy?
Yes, Hefin was born in Betws Gwerfyl Goch, and we were courting for three or four years before we got married. And then our daughter came, we had the girl first, Lyn, and we had a son later one, Adrian, and Malcolm the youngest. A very happy little family.
So, all the children were in school when you started at the pyjama factory?
Yes, yes.
And how did you get the job in the factory?
I happened to see it in the local paper, y Cyfnod it was at that time... They wanted women to work there, and I thought I would go and see what was going on, and that was it, I got a phone call then telling me that there was work there for me on the following Monday. And I thought, well, I’ll try it out in a factory, and I was there for over twelve years. And they were twelve very happy years.
So what year did you start in the factory? Was it about ten years after getting married? About ’82?
Yes, that’s it.
Right. Did you have to have an interview?
Yes, only an interview, there wasn’t anything asking me what I’d done before and I remember the first job I had when I started in Ackroyd’s was checking the clothes that the girls had made on the machines. And from there a got a little promotion and went on to iron clothes. I was in my element with the flat of the iron in my hand.
07:40 So you did’t sew?
No, I didn’t sew, no.
You’d been working in a milk factory, making cheese?
Yes, I had.
Was it very different to working in the pyjama factor?
It was, it was, but I enjoyed myself in both factories, enough fun, and hard work.
08:11 Do you remember how much your first wage was?
When I was in the milk factory, we had the old money, I remember, I brought home thirty six pounds seventy, something like that.
And was it considerably more in the pyjama factory?
Oh, yes. And we worked harder as well.
And you worked nine until five?
In the pyjama factory, we worked eight until five, and eight until one on a Friday. Everybody finished at one o’clock on a Friday.
Did you have to work Saturdays occasionally?
We worked a Saturday if it was really busy, and they wanted something out quickly, and then we’d go in from seven to eleven on a Saturday.
Do you remember you’re first day, how did you feel after going back to work after ten years?
Nothing was the same when I went back to Ackroyd’s. I knew a lot, many people, only their faces, so to speak. But it didn’t take long. There was no clique there or nothing, to fit in. No, it was great.
09:48 Would you have preferred to stay in the house, or were you happy to go back out to work?
Oh, I was hapy to go back to work. I was happy.
Why?
Oh, I missed friends, missed socialising, little things.
And what did the family think? Was your husband, for example, happy that you’d gone back?
O, no, he had no objection to me going back to work, no.
Did you collect the children from school, and take them there before work in the morning? How did it work?
No, by the time I went to Ackroyd’s they’d all nearly left school, and they were working themselves, so to speak. No, I didn’t have to depend on anybody to take them or collect them or anything.
OK. So you checked the clothes?
Yes, the girls sewed – and if there were any little holes in the material, or if there was any needle damage, little holes on the seam, I would take it back to the peson, whoever was on the side seams or sewing the legs, you could just throw them back to them, and they would be cursing to the skies that you’d found these holes. It was good fun.
Were many sent back? Were there many holes??
There were a lot of holes. Nothing to do with the machinist, just holes in the fabric. And I remember well, there was a little red sticker on the hole, where the hole was.
So they had to mend the hole then?
Not if it was in the fabric. That would go into the seconds. They called items like these seconds. Or if it was in the sleeve or, they just went over it. And sometimes they’d be shouting at me to put the sticker over my mouth.
Was there much messing around?
Yes, in a way there was. But in a good way. Nobody bore a grudge or anything like that. I think I could write a book, ha, ha.
Were there many women working there?
Yes, there was at one point, yes. There were two full mini buses going there from Blaenau. I think at one point there was over a hundred working there.
Men as well?
Yes, there were men working there as well, in the warehouse.
What did they do?
They brought boxes, brought the work through, carried materials and things through. No, there was quite a lot of work there for men as well. Lorries came and went from there with work. The only one I remember was a large beer lorry, BHS, coming back and forth there, there was a big lorry taking work to Primark. There were a lot of lorries coming there.
How did you get to work because the factory was in Bala wasn’t it?
Yes, the factory was in Bala. Well, I was lucky because I had a friend the other side of the road, Brenda was her name, I went with Brenda every day, and came home with Brenda.
By car?
Yes, yes.
13:12 Right. Were any of your brothers or sisters working in the factory?
No, they weren’t.
What did they do? The same type of work, or something different?
Oh, one of my brothers, and my father worked in the milk factory. And I would go with them to the factory. Emyr, the oldest brother, I can’t remember what the other brothers and sisters did.
The family was too large!
Yes, ha, ha.
So you’d married and gone back, were there many married women working in the factory doing the same thing?
Oh, yes, yes. And there were many young ones, there was a sort of creche, and many of the young ones took their children to the creche, and then came to work, and would pick them up later on.
So there was a creche in the factory?
In a part of the factory, yes. And it was very handy for the local people.
Did they have to pay for this?
Yes, they did. If I remember correctly, they took the money out of their wages every week, while they had children at the creche. And the creche is still running today.
What were factilities in the factory like? Was there a canteen?
Yes, there was a good canteen there at that time, there were two canteens, one for smokers and one for non-smokers. I’m afraid that there were more in the smokers than in the non-smokers canteen.
In which one were you?
Oh, I don’t like to say, but it was the smokers. You didn’t want to be the odd one out from your friends, so I went to the smokers.
So the majority of people smoked?
Yes, they did.
So you could smoke at the table while you were eating? Were there ashtrays and things on the table?
There were some ashtrays on the table in those days. When the non-smoking rule came, they put up some hut outside, where they kept bikes, there was a table there, and everybody went there then to smoke. And we’d have a little break, we’d have five minutes in every hour to go out to have a smoke and to go and have a cup of tea or coffee from the vending machine. There was a very good canteen there, they made toast in the mornings, at lunch time they made a cooked meal. Gwyneth would give us Christmas lunch with Christmas pudding there every year. At Christmas they would decorate the canteen smartly, a nice atmosphere.
18:09 Did you have to pay for your lunch in the canteen?
Yes, we did. I don’t remember properly, I know that we paid fifteen pence for a round of toast, that’s it, we paid thirty pence for a round of toast and a mug of tea. And I don’t know how much the lunch was, but it wasn’t expensive anyway.
How many breaks did you have during the day? One in the morning and one in the afternoon or more?
We would have breakfast, fifteen minutes for breakfast, we had an hour for lunch, and we were allowed to go out, we would go out at two and four o’clock.
So, would you leave the house without breakfast, and have breakfast in the canteen?
Well, it was my fault that I left the house without breakfast in the morning, but I didn’t have anything then until the breakfast in the factory. I think our gang, there were different sittings so to speak, we went from ten until quarter past. And there was another sitting then from quarter past ten until half past ten, another then from half past ten to a quarter to eleven, the men were the last ones if I remember correctly.
Where was your work place? The girls sewed, where did you do the checking?
It was one big floor, one big factory, we weren’t far from each other. There were rows of girls sewing on the machines, starting from one end and going to the other, we sat on the stool in the corner and were passed the clothes to check.
So did everybody come to you?
Yes, they did. And then we took them on a little conveyor, except it wasn’t quite a conveyor, it was something special, and say that part of a needle had broken in the material or something, the bell would ring, so you took the fabric back to whoever had broken a needle in the fabric.
21:02 There was a machine picking up on that?
Yes, the machine had a bell, yes, yes.
Why did you move to pressing, where was that?
That was in a particular part of the factory as well, that we called the packing area. There were five of us pressing, everybody working on a different line, like I would be working on group A, there was a group B, C and D. I would only press what was coming off the line of our group.
Were they pyjamas, or other things?
O no, they were normally tops.
Pyjama tops?
Yes, pyjama tops. There was a girl opposite me, she was folding and putting clothes on hangers. Sometimes there were tops and shorts for boys, so I would just press the sleeves of the tops and the short would also need pressing, just press the bottom where the hem was. And put some clips on them and place them on a hanger.
22.50 And where would they go from there? To be packed?
They would then go to to packed, there was a machine, and somebody would put each one would be put on a machine and pull the polythene bag around it and close it, and there were others who packed them into the boxes, and took them, there were men who came to take them to the warehouse.
Was it difficult to press these clothes?
It was hot, and the ironing table was large, and the ironing flat extremely heavy. There was a tin on the side with water, for the steam, you had to make sure that there was enough water in it.
It was a steam iron?
Yes, yes. Or it would explode. In big places they used these ironing flats. I wouldn’t mind having one of those at home.
Were you sitting or standing?
Oh, we stood up all day.
Standing all day?
O no, we didn’t sit. The machinists were sat down all day, of course, no, we were stood up.
Was that difficult?
Yes, my feet would go and my feet would hurt from time to time, and we got some special mats, with some sort of sponge underneath, and we stood on them then all day for eight hours.
24:28 For a long time then?
Yes, it was.
Do you remember how much you were paid?
Oh, I’m sure I used to bring home just over a hundred pounds. Yes, it was a little over a hundred pounds, by the time you paid what you paid, national insurance.
A hundred every week or every month?
No, every week.
And would that go into the family ‘pot’ or could you keep some for yourself?
No, you just had a payslip and it went straight into the bank, yes.
So you spent your money in the home then? On the family?
Yes, yes.
Did you spend any on yourself?
On myself, no, not much. I’d have a little packet of cigarettes and I was happy enough.
25:37 Did you smoke a lot?
No, no, I like to smoke sometimes, but I didn’t smoke in the house.
Was there a union in the factory at that time?
Yes there was, but there were many who hadn’t joined it.
Did you join it?
No, no.
Why not?
I don’t know. I remember Hefin, my husband, saying something about not needing to bother with it. No, not many paid into that union.
So what would happen if there was a problem at work? Workers wanting more money or something?
Well, we didn’t have a say in the matter at all, and if you weren’t in the union, you never found out about anything.
27:00 So did the people in the union complain?
No. I never heard them, no. I don’t think it made much of a difference to those who were in the union, and those who weren’t in the union, in my opinion.
Do you remember an occasion when there was a strike or a dispute or anything like that?
No I don’t, no. But I remember once, that Cath ...
Cath Parry?
Cath Parry, yes, they had, oh what do you call it ...
What happened?
Oh, if I remember the story correctly, Cath Parry from Bala, it was always busy before Christmas, and she wanted everything out before Christmas, and the supervisor would always be round during the week asking everybody ‘Can you work Saturday next week? – they wanted this and that, and the majority were happy to do it. Cath, and a girl called Barbara Ellis, couldn’t work and because they’d said they would work they were suspended. And they were off work for about three weeks, but they came to some agreement after that.
And what about the union .. . . .
Oh, I remember that they’d joined the union. So one good thing came out of it.
The union fought on their behalf?
Yes, yes.
What did you think about that? Did you think it was unfair?
Oh, in so far as, when the supervisor came round, well, nobody knew what they would be doing the next week. Something had cropped up. But they were suspended anyway
What were the bosses like? Were they fair?
They were very good bosses to work with them. Oh, yes there was Nigel and David. Well, Nigel was in the factory in Bala, David was in the factory in Altringham. That’s where he would go. The both of them were two good people to work for.
And what did they think of the union? Were they happy to allow a union in?
Oh, to tell you the truth, I don’t remember.
30:25 You mentioned Christmas parties, what were they like?
We had really good parties. There were so many of us, and the only place in
Bala back then where we could all sit down was Neuadd y Cyfnod. And we used to have great parties and good food there. And plenty of ‘cherry binks’ and everything there, and a disco afterwards.
What are ‘cherry binks’?
Well, you have a little glass of water or a glass of ... ha ha ... of wine, whatever you like. Oh, it was like being let loose, we’d been working so hard, and the factory was shut, we always had a party. And we went to Neuadd y Cyfnod, and if I remember correctly I went with them three or four times, but then the place wasn’t big enough any more as so many of us were working there, and I remember going with them one year to Bron Olau I think, in Dolgellau, there were two buses full of us going to Bron Olau on that occasion. There was more room there than in Neuadd y Cyfnod.
So the factory bosses paid for everything, the food, wine the buses, everything?
Yes they did, everything.
For how long was the factory shut over Christmas?
We closed, say three days before Christmas and we went back the day after the New Year. Something like it is today, so to speak.
What about in the summer?
Yes, we closed at that time, for a fortnight, all of us together. We closed the last week in July, when the big factories in the Midlands closed, they closed because they brought stuff over, and we always shut when the Ivor Williams factory shut, and we closed over Christmas as well.
What was Ivor Williams’ factory?
It made trailers, animal trailers, yes.
So your husband was off on holiday the same time as you?
Yes, he was, yes.
Did you go away on holiday in the summer?
No, we didn’t go away, I remember, we had a caravan years ago, and I was happy enough to go to Bethel, near Caernarfon.
In the caravan?
In the caravan, packing our bag and heading off on a Friday, just following our noses and heading up to Caernarfon. I really used to enjoy that.
It was a tourer caravan?
Yes, yes. And Cath and I, we went, we made a programme on summer holday for the television, called, 'Pobol y Pyjamas' (the pyjama people) and they would come here to film us, and we went to the Eisteddfod in Llanelli. That was ten years ago. We had fun at the Eisteddfod, a lot of fun.
34:40 How many of you? Were you a big gang of girls?
No, we filmed everybody, the majority at the factory, what they did, stories about the factory and things, but Cath and I were chosen to go, they wanted us to go to the Eisteddfod camping, to Maes B, in Llanelli. And we went and stayed in a tent for two nights, it was a small tent, and our legs and feet were swollen like balloons.
So you were filming in the Eisteddfod?
Yes, we were.
What did you do there? Just walk around?
We just walked around and did different things, I can’t remember now, and we went to the bingo in Llanelli one night, they even filmed us playing bingo. I don’t know if they knew that we were going to the bingo that night, they brought us a huge cake, presented the cake with ‘Pobol y Pyjamas’ on it, and we took it back all the way from Llanelli to Bala.
And what happened to the cake?
I can’t remember, to tell you the truth. I’m sure it was eaten, the men ate it probably!
36:21 Did the cake go to the factory then?
Yes, we took the cake to the factory, yes. But we had an awful lot of fun during the filming. The television programme was on every Tuesday night and it was called ‘Pobol y Pyjamas.’
Were you paid for that?
Yes. We got paid, we deserved something for what we’d done.
Was it hard work?
Yes, it was.
And Cath mentioned another day out at the races?
O yes, we did have that, fair play to Ackroyd’s, they promised us, we went to Haydock.
Not only to Bangor on Dee?
No, we went to Haydock Park in Liverpool, or Aintree, I can’t remember. Yes, we went to Bangor on Dee, as well. We had two buses full, it was a lovely day, and we were important, there was a big tent there just for Ackroyd’s workers.
Really?
Yes, and lunch, pudding, and wine, there was plenty of wine, and eveything for nothing. And then going to bet, I didn’t have a clue.
But did you win anything?
Oh, yes. I was very lucky. But towards the end, after having a bit too much wine, I remember telling Cath, ‘Cath, I don’t have much money left in my purse, but I’m going to put what I have got on the last horse.’ And that’s what I did, I don’t think I won a penny.
So,when did they start going to the races in the factory? Was it something new or had they been before?
I think they’d been about twice before I started in Ackroyd’s. But it was a day to remember. We started our way home after the last race, about half past five. Everybody went to Bala then, to Plas Coch, to end the evening, and we counted how much money we’d made.
It was on a Saturday then?
Yes, on a Saturday. I used to look forward to going to the races.
Did the men and the women go?
Yes, they did.
More or less the whole factory?
Everybody who wanted to go put their name down, the majority would go and enjoy themselves.
39:39 Would you socialise with work people during the weekends and outside work because you lived in Corwen and the factory was in Bala.
No, Cath and I liked going to the bingo, and we went to Wrexham sometimes on a Saturday, to the Mecca in Wrexham, to have a game of bingo, and the both of us went to York on a mini break with Seren Arian. We went to the bingo there one night and Cath got lucky, I’ll never forget.
Did she win?
Yes, Cath won a big sum of money. Yes,
For how long were you working in the pyjama factory?
I worked in the pyjama factor for twelve years.
Why did you leave?
My husband became ill, and I stayed home to be with him. I received a letter saying that the factory was going to shut, and with my husband becoming ill and and the letter saying that the factory was going to shut, I broke my heart. I lost my husband five years ago and the factory shut a little time before that, and both things were a great loss to me.
Did the factory shut completely, or was it just the sewing?
The majority of the workers finished, apart from about half a dozen part-timers, and they’re still there today, from nine to three. And there are girls still working in the office there.
But the majority had finished . . .
Yes, they’ve finished and everybody has gone their own way.
Did you get some kind of redundancy?
Yes I did.
Were you sad to finish there?
Yes I was.
43:00 What was the worst thing – leaving the job or leaving the company?
Missing frinds, I must say we had a good gang at Ackroyds. Everybody was friends with each other. We called each other different names – one was called Ann Fach because she was small, another was called Ann Eggs because she brought eggs in to sell, there was Sioned Fach from Llandderfel, she was the smallest of the Sioned, there was a Carys Llan, because she was from Llanuwchlyn.
Did everybody speak Welsh?
The majority did. Yes, there was a good gang, really nice girls from Blaenau there, some from Tan y Grisiau, Margaret Tan y Grisiau, there was Iona from Ffestiniog, and I’m still friends with Iona to this day today.
During the time you were working as a presser, with steam and water, were there ever any accidents?
Yes, I was always burning my hand or something with the steam and sometimes I’d burn the fabric, and I would just put it in the bin to hide it.
Was there Health and Safety regulations in the factory?
Yes.
If you got a burn did you report it?
Yes, we’d report it and there was a first-aider in the factory. You’d report it and write it down in the book.
Were people careful?
People had to be careful.
How did the men and women get on together? Was there a lot of banter? What was the men’s attitude to the women as co-workers?
We used to have fun with the men, some were quite mischievous, hiding scissors, or hiding something else, or saying that somebody was needed on the phone and playing tricks by getting them to run from one end of the factory to the other. They were great men and women to work with.
46:33 Was it the men playing tricks on the women or the other way round?
Both I think. They were great.
Was it quite strict there?
They had to be quite strict. Everybody worked hard, everybody did their work. There was no playing around when everybody was working. There would be no playing around or you’d see Nigel coming through, Nigel would have tantrums sometimes.
Did he?
He would shout if something wasn’t right.
Would there be something wrong?
Yes, something would have gone wrong with some or other had gone wrong with some order or something. You’d hear the office door banging, and Nigel banging the table, but they were very nice people to work for.
Was it noisy there?
Yes, but most of the noise would come from the radio. You’d have Radio One from eight until two. And then they’d switch over to Radio Two from two until five.
Why would they switch channels?
The young ones wanted Radio One and the older ones wanted Radio Two. We didn’t get Radio Cymru for some reason, there was alway terrible interference.
So there the workers agreed among themselves to change channels?
Yes, and we’d look at the clock and say, ‘Oh well we’ll be having Radio Two in a minute’ and the gang would hear a song, and we’d sing together.
Did people work and sing at the same time?
Me and the girls would press and sing at the same time, or hum, and somebody would shout, ‘Shut your mouth!
49:49 So you have good memories?
Very good. But it’s such a shame that the factory closed. It was quite a bombshell for Bala.
Were there protests about the closure, or wasn’t there anything the workers could do?
Nobody could do anything. The Ackroyds tried everything. We had a party.
To say farewell?
Yes, we had a party in a marquee, fair play. It was a sad day, very sad.
So if the bosses didn’t want to close the factory why did it close then?
They didn’t want to close, as they said, but they didn’t have any choice. And they moved the work to China.
So head-office decided?
I would have thought so.
Did the people who left find work elsewhere?
Most of them did, yes. They found work outside Bala. Some have been lucky but I didn’t because I was retiring age. I was happy enough then.
Was it difficult to stop working?
Yes, I must say it was, but over the last three or four years, I’ve been lucky. If Ackroyd’s are busy they give me a ring and ask me to help out. I was there last year, I was there for four months, and I was there the year before, I was there for six months until Christmas. It was nice to go back but it wasn’t the same, the girls weren’t there and it was very empty. It was quite strange going back there.
So they would call you up during busy periods?
They knew I was at home, and that I could go and help them pack, or check.
Who gives you a call – the bosses or the personnel department?
Gareth in the office. He phones and asks if I’m busy, and if I would like to go back.
Was he the manager when you used to be there?
Gareth was in the personnel department. I’d go in the next morning. I know everybody there. And my daughter, as I said, is still there.
53:33 Looking back over your time in the factory, what did you enjoy more than anything else?
Oh, the friendship. We’ve laughed and laughed, and we’ve had a really good time.
Did you change during your time there?
Not at all. Everybody was on the same level. I think it’s nice working in a factory where everybody is on the same level. I think it’s nice working in a factory and mixing with everybody else.
Was there something that you didn’t like about working there – either the people or the work?
No, something like that didn’t cross my mind. I liked going to work in the morning. I enjoyed myself.
Is there anything else I haven’t asked that you would like to mention?
No, nothing.
Thanks you very much Greta.
54:55 You’re welcome.
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