Transcriptions for Birmingham Conservation Trust, Newman Brothers
Coffin Works
Key to notes
Underlined Clarification
required by local expert
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questions/prompts
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specific
Black Italic Newman’s specific
Blue Personal background
Blue Italic Personal
and relevant insight to Newman’s as
well
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comments/observations of historic interest
Green Italic Historic
events of wider importance
… Transcription
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Tape: 113 Newman’s DV, Elizabeth Weaving WIDE, Copyright Birmingham
Conservation Trust
Err, I’m Elizabeth Weaving. I
was born in Scotland. Err, to be more precise, err just outside Ballantrae in
Ayrshire, err and I was born in the, err bad winter of 1947. In February.
…
How did you come to
work here?
I, as I say, I worked for
another firm doing exactly the same thing and
in those days you just moved because you want more money. Erm, but at the time, err I thought there
wasn’t much scope for me, and, err, somebody told me there was a job going and,
as I say, err, the salary was more (laughs) and it was in, it was in the early ‘70s
when I think most people, if you got fed up of a place, err you could just walk
out, in the morning and by the err following morning you’d have a new job to go
to (laughs).
So, how did you get
involved in this industry as a whole because it seems like an odd industry to
be involved in?
I left, when I left school, uh,
first of all, I went to work for the Co-op Laundry err, dry cleaning section,
err, I got fed up of that, and, err then I went and worked as a driver for S
U Carburettors, delivering. I got fed up of that (laughs) and then, err I,
I must admit that I did go to the err, employment exchange and s- and for err
because I couldn’t find, because usually jobs would get err the jobs I had had
previously, people had said, “ooh, they want such and such there” but no but
the, so I went to the employment exchange and they said, “well, what, what can
you do and what have you been doing and are you willing to work anywhere?” I
says, ‘Well, within reason’, and err, er, they offered me a book binding job. I
went. I didn’t like it. I didn’t think I’d like it and then they said,
“Well the next one we’ve got,” err “how are you with the dead?” (Laughs) that
was the exact question they said, “How are you with the dead?” I says, ‘in what
respect?’ and err, she says, er “are you bothered about death? Does it frighten
you?” I says ‘no’. I says ‘where I was
born and brought up err we were taught not to fear death.’ “Oh” she, I says, “Why?”
She says, “Well, we’ve got a job here for an undertakers.” And er, so I says, “Well,
yes, I’m ga- what’s the wages?” – which
I can’t remember – and I says “ooh, yes.” So I went along, and when I got there
– it wasn’t here – when I got there it was er, T Ellis jones, and err it wasn’t
far from where I lived, and it was in a little house. The whole factory was in
a house. And they were ever-so nice. It was a family run firm and err, this is
what it was to be (points to Newman factory surroundings) – sewing. That it was
not an undertaker’s as I’d been left to believe, but erm, this [Coffin Works
sewing room] and I stayed there for I think it was about 5 years, and err, as I
say it was a small family firm, and it, it was run by the owner, the
son-in-law, and his two daughters. And, erm, as I
say, I only left for the reason that, erm, I was err, in the throes of getting
married – or at least hoping to get married – so, of course, you wanted as much
money as you can get to save. So, that was the reason I left. And, err, we were
both sorry. I was sorry to leave, and they were sorry to lose me. And, then I
went to work, err, I can’t remember where I worked after that. It’s a blank. Nobody
else can remember it’s so long back though (laughs). And erm, then I, I heard that
there was a job here be- because I did find that erm, sewing generally – ooh!
It was Leroy’s. I’ve just remembered! I worked for Lee Rose er,
that was, err, ladies clothes.
So, when, when you,
when you got here, I mean, did, did, did you just, did they sort- did they do
any tests? How did they decide?
I came in. I came for
an interview. I came, I was brought up here [Newman Brother’s Sewing Room] and
erm, I was left with the forewoman. And of course, she asked me questions, and
the minute I said that, err “have you done this before”, and I says “yes, er,
four or five years with err, T Ellis Jones” “Oh! We know them.” I says “yes” I
says “and of course, I knew you through working with T Ellis Jones.” So of
course, erm, they said, err, “well if you’re willing to start, we’re willing to
have you” and “when can you start?” And I says, “tomorrow if you want me”
(laughs). So erm I came the next day and I was here for about three years
So what was this
place like, to work in?
The girls, the women,
we were all very friendly err were more like sisters – and aunts with the older
ones – err same with the men, err sometimes I would go down at lunchtime err,
it’s all been altered slightly. (Gestures around room to doors). That you used
to go downstairs and you could get out through the side to go to the toilet. And,
er, on the ground floor, they used to have the, err, breast plates, pack them
all up, and sometimes there would be, coffins and caskets that had been, err to
go on from wherever they’d been ordered from. And I used to go down there was a,
err I can’t remember his name, was a nice man. He was in his late 50s and, I
used to go down and sit and talk to him in my lunch break erm, because he had
been in the Great War, and I had a grandfather who had been in the Great War
and, of course, err, I used to go down there and sometimes as I say, erm my
seat down there was the err coffin or the casket (laughs). ‘Course he would cover
it with, err, so it couldn’t get scratched because err, I’d go down there say, “sit
down”, I say where and he’d “just a minute” and he’d put, and I’ve actually sat
on coffins (laughs) They’ve been empty of course! We were- I would never do
that if they were occupied.
What was, I mean,
tell, tell me more about- You’re actually sitting there. Paint a picture for us
about what else would be going on.
Well, you’d, you’d have the machinists here doing whatever they
were given because we didn’t all only do g- err we didn’t just do gowns, we did
other things. There’d be the Forewoman making up the orders. She and her
partner, they would be making up the err – ooh sorry – making up the erm gowns
and the orders.
Through there would,
there’d be the men doing the handles, breast plates, all the coffin furniture
then there’d be the men doing the handles, breastplates, all the coffin
furniture then there was the packers err, I mean we would, err these would be
packed up into boxes, err I think there were 12 to a box and, was it 24? They
were great big boxes. And then of course they would go downstairs err, to be,
err shipped off to wherever they were, whether they were for this country or
a-abroad because we literally sent them all over the world.
And err, of course there was the office, but
we never saw the office. Even at the interview I never saw the inside of the
office. Erm, it was very, well as you can see, Victorian. Very, even, even in
the ‘70s – err, late ‘60s, early ‘70s. It was very Victorian. I don’t want to
sound as if I’m putting the place down but it, the values were still erm, sort
of erm, ‘30s and ‘40s. That erm, so long as you got on with your work, you were
alright, but I mean Newman Brothers were, were not the only firm that were like
that. I have been in other firms whereas so long as you kept your nose clean,
you were fine and you got on well because of, of course, as I said before, it was in the days when it was easy to
get new staff, and for the staff themselves that if you didn’t like the job, you
just, say “I’m off, I’m leaving” (laughs) I know that must sound callous
***
Joyce Green Interview
Joyce Green Wide Part 1
00:00:23:13
Joyce Green: In my bag there’s a
bottle because I get, um, I’ve got a husky, husky voice. Can I put it down
there?
Interviewer: Ok, just do your
best but let Miss Green Talk alright? Cumbersome process tele, isn’t it?
JG: I’ve warned you, you should
be making me look beautiful.
I: Oh,
JG: What are you going to do to
make me look beautiful?
I: Don’t need to. You look
fantastic.
JG: Laughs Hold your chin
up!
I: Ok? Alright lovely, just so
we’ve got this on the tape I want you to introduce yourself, um, and could you
tell me, ideally can you also tell me where you were born
And if you’re willing to, when
you were born
JG: Laughs Well my name is
Joyce Green. I was born in Birmingham. I’m seventy five years of age, born in
1931.
I: Brilliant. So how did you come
to work here?
00:01:51:00
JG: I came to work at Newman
Brothers because I worked across in Summer Row and the, my boss who, um was the
owner of that business made tubes for Newman Brothers, that’s part of the
casket work. Um he was really, um a dust extractor but he, this was a sideline
as well and of course over the period they came into our office and, um, got
chatting and then I was invited over to have tea with them in the afternoons.
Not every afternoon but here and there because I worked alone and, um, my boss
didn’t mind me coming out and of course he would say
“See if you can get us an order
we need, we could do with some more, an order for some more tubes.”
And I would sort of casually say
“Well you know we’re, Mr. Jones
is a little bit short of work. Could we put a further order in for you for when
you-”
“Oh yes-”
You know. And so I had tea with them at 4
o’clock and that’s how I got to know them. And when they went, um, had um, an outing,
they did a works outing and so I was invited to come to the works outing which
I think the first one was Blackpool. And so we, you know, hired a coach and um,
we all go off to Blackpool for the day.
00:03:33:01
I: Not heard
JG: Oh yes, yes, all picked up at
Fleet Street and then off we go for the day. And of course it was the first
time I’d ever been to Blackpool so of course it was quite a, an eye opener
really all the, you know, all the rides and all the things you could do so of
course we had, I had quite a, I had a lovely day. And um, Mr. Horace came and
John Kellet and Charles Floyd and of course the rest of the, the factory.
I: So, I just, can you tell me a
bit more about your background? How old-
JG: I was eighteen when I came
here.
I: And what, what is your family
background? You were born in Birmingham, what’s your family background?
JG: Well I was born in
Birmingham, um, and my parents were, were Birmingham bred and born and um, I, I
lived near, in the early years, I lived near um, Smallheath Park. Not far away
from there. And we were there until, a three storey house- you know a three
storey, um you know a house with two stories on top, big house, and… and then
of course came the war and, um, the bombing and of course we were very close really
there to the BSA. And so um, there were one or two horrific nights as a young
girl with my sister, and um, we were, we were housed in the cellar. But of
course when things got very bad neighbours had to come and join us in that
cellar and when, after that particular heavy raid, my father said
“Well, we’re going to move.”
And he did quite an unusual
thing, he moved out to Shirley. Um, people thought he was mad but he moved out
to Shirley and bought a house out in Shirley. And that’s where I grew up.
00:05:46:22
I: And what did your father do
for a living?
JG: Well my father was an office
worker for the um, Birmingham Corporation. He actually dealt with the um, the
transport side and the money side of a large um, Yard wood depot.
I: So. Tell me about your first-
you already knew the place and you already knew the people but the first time
you came to work here what were your first impressions of this building and
what happened here and the people here?
00:06:18:22
JG: Hmm, well it, it was just
natural to come really I suppose because I’d sort of been to tea and, and then,
um, I can’t think of the ladies name she, um Miss. Ree, Miss. Ray, Miss. Regan.
Miss Regan decided to leave and um, they said “Look” and my boss had had a
heart attack so it all fell in very well that I came to work for Newman
Brothers. When I did come I found out that everything, all invoices were
written by hand into a ledger, one of the large ledgers still left here, and
then were typed separately to the customer. Well, I soon altered those
arrangements because you would just be doing double work. So um, we started a
different system on the book keeping and it, um, had a different type of
invoice where you had three of four to view, which would mean when you typed
the top copy, then came the advice note, then the copy for the office and then
the travellers copy. So it was all done in one.
00:07:43:08
I: What was your, I suppose, I
admit, it’s interesting your impression of the whole place and the people
because you must have had, I think when people come round here they have quite
a strong first impression of the place. Are you-
JG: Well I just found it a, I
just found it quite a happy place. There were young people. I mean John Kellet
was young, he came after the war. Dai Davies, he was young, he came after the
war, um, Charles Floyd he came after the war, so it was a young nucleus of
people that I joined. And we grew up together in a way because they had lost a
lot of their growing up years abroad and um, in the air force, all three of them
had been in the air force. So really it was a sort of a starting off point
really although some of them had been here a year or so before I came. So it
was just natural that I came here.
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