Surname
|
Hughes
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Forename
|
Trevor
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Date of recording
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May 2009
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Year of birth
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1944
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Place of Birth
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Ipswich
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Occupation
|
Brickworks manager
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Fathers occupation
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Brickworks manager
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Present Address
|
Stadbroke
|
Location Interview
|
Stadbroke
|
Interviewer
Summary |
Colin Fletcher
|
Duration
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104 Mins
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No of tracks: 12
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This recording consists of 12 tracks.
Track 1 (0.56mins) Introduction. Track 2 (10 mins) Details of his birth in 1944 at Ipswich Hospital. Lived in a Council house until he was 23 years old - 22 Nursery Cottages (East View). His father worked for Reades of Aldeburgh as lorry driver and then moved into tied cottage at Aldeburgh Brickworks as foreman. One older brother who went into the Merchant Navy. In 1960 brother jumped ship and made a home in Australia. Only seen him twice since then. Lived near East View, between Eight Bells pub and the police station at Kelsale. Very few cars in those days. Idyllic childhood. Played football in the street. Lots of children at Kelsale School. In 1947 the Daily Mirror did a feature about Kelsale - pictures of parson, Canon Eddors, school children on the school steps and Alfie Biddle and his mother drawing Old Age Pension at the post office. Trevor wasn't 'into schooling' and couldn't read until he was 12 years old. The army educated him and 'turned him round'. Describes his council house. William C Reade built all the council houses in the area. As a young boy he travelled on Reades' lorry with his father delivering bricks. He knew all the old boys who worked for Reades. They travelled up to a hundred miles from Aldeburgh delivering bricks and bringing building materials back from Norwich, Ipswich or Bury St Edmunds to Reades' building sites. After the war Reades bought surplus army lorries. Reades only had 'C' licences, not 'A' licences. Grandparents all died early. Trevor's parents were brought up by relatives because their parents died. Father, a Welshman born in Anglesea, came to Suffolk in 1928 looking for work such as hoeing sugar-beet and casual work. Father, a hard worker, got lodgings in Suffolk. Father's brother was a driver for Smythes (builders) of Leiston. Father a driver for Reades. Reades had other drivers - Jack Jennings, Harry Goodchild, Don Wilson, Kim Howard. Reades had their yard in Leiston Road (Mariners Way now) and had a petrol pump there to fill the lorries. Track 3 (10 mins) Dick Smith. What was stored at Reades' yard. Maintenance work by lorry drivers. Bill Reade of William C Reade. Building workers biking to work. Building employee's terms of employment. History of Reades building firm. Father worked for Reades. Father's army service in REME. Trevor's dad, a lorry driver for Reades then becomes manager of Aldeburgh Brickworks. Trevor's first job in the army. Second job on Richard Garrett's, Leiston. Poor wages at Garretts. Gets job on Reades. Track 4 (10 mins) George Mallett's (general foreman) site in Leiston. Reades men - Bert Kemp, Charlie Rouse, Leslie Keeble. Crowy Spall. Jack Clark. Building site accident with cement mixer. Trevor takes over scaffolding on the site. Reades' Leiston sites - East View, Sylvester Road and Red House Lane (Trevor mistakenly says Goldings Lane on the tape. He meant Red House Lane). Foreman's job setting out the houses. Meeting his wife and courting. Moved to Aldeburgh Brickworks house with parents then to new council house with wife in Benhall in 1968. Trevor becomes manager of brickworks in 1974. Kiln accident at brickworks. Stanley Shaw. Night burning. Driving brick lorry and sand lorry. Snape Concert Hall. Getting to know the men as a boy and learning about brickmaking. Track 5 (10 mins) Getting sand out of West Pit. Undermining Cob House. Pure white sand. East Pit opened in 1947. George Constance. The old Fordson digging clay - hard work. Amount of clay in a year. Peace work at the brickworks. Winter and summer jobs. Seasonal workers. 'Barthings'. Good clay and poor, sticky clay. Digging clay. Mixing clay and loamy sand for brickmaking. Blue and brown veins in clay. Correct processes for mixing. Undermining the clay face. Process of extracting clay. 'Clayting'. 'Stone-clayting'. Ancient river beds under the River Alde. How they were formed. Undermining with pegs and water. Dangers. Spreading layers of sand and clay in 'the basin'. Flooding 'the basin'. Dolf Rouse in 1926. Reades take over the brickworks in1926. Track 6 (6.22mins) Sam and Billy Newson from Snape help to start Aldeburgh Brickworks in 1926. Carr's Brickworks, Leiston. A skilled brickmaker called Paternoster. An itinerant flower-pot maker. Arnold Drew, specials hand-maker. The old method of making bricks. The pugmill. Wooden moulds best for sticky clay. Track 7 ( 8.31mins) 'Skintle and 'skantle'. The slip-mould and the stock. The east and the west pit. Clay from Chillesford. Problems with flints in the clay. Making a 'warf'. 'Chates' and 'strikes'. Imperial brick sizes. Shrinkage of bricks during firing. The drying cars. Open-air drying and 'hakes'. Mr Bristow of 'The Thatch', Chairman of the London Brick Company. Regional differences in brickmaking terms - 'hakes' or 'hacks'. Stacking in the hakes for drying. Track 8 (10mins) The jetty on the River Alde, the railway line and the World War 1 airfield (1916-23). Ministry of Defence maps. Iken Way House, Roundhill and Marsh Cottage. The sandpit. Hazelwood hall Farm. The airfield behind Baldry's Farm. The engineers' workshop on the airfield. The locomotives and the small-gauge-railway. Hall Farm jetty. The brickworks railtrack. Modernisation of the brickworks in the early 1960's. Dolf Rouse, the first manager of the brickworks. Charlie Rouse. Alfie Rouse. Old Dolf and Young Dolf. Alfie Rouse (Young Dolf) a very skilled man. The steam engine. The dibbler machine. Wantisden Hall. Mr Kemble. Three pugmills. Drawing water. The wash machine. The 1936 Ruston Hornsby single-cylinder diesel engine. Brick moulds: slip moulds, box moulds and book moulds. Track 9 ( 10mins) Alfie makes a special mould. Modernisation of brickworks in the early 1960's. Rural Industries. Brick-making not seasonal anymore. The drying tunnel. The 'making gang'. The Berry machine. The new kilns. The drying cars. Number of bricks made per week. The 'yard gang'. The 'book ideas' of Rural Industries versus practical experience. Shedding labour. New methods more labour efficient. New system of brick-making. Peace work. The day's work. Hand-makers and day workers. Drying bricks in summer and winter. The coke boiler. Changing the sheds round. 1000 different moulds. Expanding to 3 hand-makers. Making a large coping. Problems drying large bricks. A good team of workers. Track 10 (10mins) Drying the sand naturally and mechanically. The Berry brick-making machine, bought and refurbished in 1964. Hudsons brick-makers, Surrey. Spares and repairs for the Berry machine. IBSTOK. Repairs by J T Pegg, engineers, Aldeburgh. Sending old machines to Third World countries. Tanzania. The Ruston Hornsby engine. Spares from Shepherds Bush. Using the Ruston Hornsby - dependence on it. Track 11 (10.16mins) Mains water comes to the house. Water from the well. Future of the brickworks. 7-year cycles in the brick market. 1979- Maggie Thatcher - collapse of the market. Mr Freddie Corke. MD of Reades. 1983, market recovers. 1990, Market down again. Number of bricks in stock. The clay stock. 1947, the East Pit opened. 1983/4 clay from Chillesford. Planning permission to dig at Chillesford till 2015. Royalties for the farmer. 1879, national geological survey. 1979 centenary survey by Lincoln University geologists. Price of bricks over the years. Trevor reflects on his career. Glyn Hollister and Freddie Corke - good employers and kind to Trevor. Track 12 (9.01mins) Trevor's childhood The Kelsale council house: The brick copper. The black range. Electric lights. No gas. No drainage. No water. The village pump. Sharing the water-cart with neighbours. Gas comes to Kelsale, 1954. Water comes to Kelsale, 1953. Sewers come to Kelsale, 1955. More electric sockets. Toilet up the garden. Friday night was 'soil night' for spreading waste. Indoor toilets and bathroom, 1963. New extension - work completed by tenants. Village characters 'Track' Phillips at the slaughterhouse. Old Penner, a wheeler-dealer. Alfie Beddle, a horse trader, and the Suffolk Punches. Billy Gitch, Garden cottage, Middleton Moor. Jack Wright who lived in a railway carriage. The old boy who lived in a chicken hut. 'Fly' Palmer who pushed a pram all the way to Ipswich. Pony and traps. Traffic-free roads. |