Interview about the Wolverton Works, hard times and life in New Bradwell.

Fred Price continues his reminiscence of starting work at the Wolverton Works in 1923. Aged fourteen, wearing short trousers, he was interviewed and checked by a doctor before being allocated to the Brass Room. It was usual to stay within a shop for the duration of your employment and FP worked in the Brass Shop for fifty years until retirement. Given only four files to start, employees made their own tools, there was no protective clothing and men often handled asbestos. Productivity counted as all employees were paid by ‘piecework’.

Friday was payday and workers still wearing boilersuits or aprons would go to the Royal Engineer pub where over a hundred pints were already drawn and lined up on the bar. At dinnertime some meals were delivered by the old steam tram and hundreds of bikes, referred to as the ‘mad hatters’ would leave the Works. Workers travelling home were restricted to a special train with boarded seats because their clothes were too dirty.

Fred Price worked on the Royal Train and recalls ‘offa’ pans and the Wolverton ‘Flush’.