Interview about the Wolverton Works, holidays, the General Strike, local politics and local characters.

Fred Price describes hard times, the uncompromising working conditions at the Wolverton Works, the unusual way wages were paid and how holidays were an unpaid ‘lock out’. Families would save all year to go away but would often take their own food with them.

Recipes; ‘Mountain Pecker’ boiled sheep’s head, clangers, suet puddings warmed up at the Works for dinner. Folk remedies, goose grease, vinegar and brown paper, fried mice (for Whooping cough).

He mentions some local characters, his workmates and accidents at the Works including his father’s fatal accident.

During the General Strike (1926) he and his fellow workers at the Works were locked out and had no option other than to sign on the dole. No trains ran except the ‘Lathbury Gents’ manned by ‘toff’s sons’ which continued to run despite the pickets. He recounts incidents of civil unrest and police action and how the few men who continued working were shunned and labelled ‘blacklegs’. After the strike not all the men were re-instated. There was friction between local chapel and church when the manager, a Baptist, re-hired chapel people first.

Refers to how he and his wife were involved in local Labour Party politics, canvassing, and the women’s section.