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Early in 1940 my dad married a new wife, her name was Edna
Fox and she had a young daughter called Eileen who was about
eleven years old. We moved to a new home at Gomersal which
after Batley was sort of country like. Our new home was
a modern semi. with a garden back and front, and an inside
lav. and bath. The furniture and carpets were all brand
new, talk about posh, my new step sister by the way was
not rough like me but a real little lady.
I was sent to the Church of England school at Hill Top and
in no time at all the vicar had me enrolled in the local
church choir, if my mates from Batley found out I would
never live it down, but I felt I must put the past behind
me I now lived in a posh house with a real family. Edna
soon had a baby, it was a boy and they called it Kenneth,
my dad was very fertile. Some people came and delivered
a gas mask for the baby, it was like a space suit and took
a lot of skill to get the baby into it. The news that we
had this baby mask caused a lot of interest and lots of
people came to see it including the local vicar, and poor
little Ken had to be pushed into it so that people could
see his little face through the glass.
I must tell you this, one day I went with some of my mates
to the Pictures at Cleckheaton which was about two mile
down the road, on our return we all went running into our
house and all the furniture had gone the house was empty,
and my step mother was sat on the window ledge crying, I
had to sort of get rid of my mates in a hurry. It turned
out that my dad was behind with the HP payments and the
shop had taken it all back, that was a real blow to my new
image I can tell you.
I left school at 14 and got my first job, an apprentice
upholsterer at small furniture shop with a upholsterers
workshop, I did not do a lot of learning my trade but was
a sort of general dogs body, each Friday I had to go out
on a bike collecting the weekly payments. One day while
having my lunch sat on a bale of padding with one of the
upholsterers he got out his john willie, which was massive
and said have a look at this, I just jumped up and ran over
to the shop. I don't know why but I never told any one but
I made sure not to be alone with that fellow again.
I only received fourteen and six a week wage, and most
of my mates worked at Thomas Burnley’s Textile Mill
which was only 300 yards from our house in Spen Lane, Gomersal,
and they were paid thirty-nine shillings. I had a chat with
my dad, who by the way worked as a c.o. at the local labour
exchange and he agreed that I could leave my job and go
and work at the mill.
I got a job as a creeler in the mule spinning, it was a
hell hole, my job was to run up and down the back of the
mules changing the empty bobbins, the spinner and piecner
used to scream out at you pointing at any bobbing that was
running low. In my first week I was sent an errand into
the cap spinning where all the women worked and I had only
got half way through when a gang of young girls jumped on
me and pulled down my overalls and then rubbed heavy oil
all over my willie, I had to run all the way back to the
mule spinning with no pants on to be greeted with a great
shout from a gang of lads waiting for me at the door. A
couple of days later a lad asked me if I thought I could
hit a kid whose name I can't remember, I must have said
yes because he came back later and said that a fight had
been fixed for me and this kid at lunch time. Well I went
out full of confidence because he was not as big as me but
it turned out that he was a bit of a fighter and that I
had been set up, with two smashing blows he bust my nose
and cut my lip and I decided to give in before any more
damage was done. Life at Thomas Burnley’s was making
life in Taylor St. seem peaceful, But things improved because
I got a new best friend called Herbert Firth and he was
the toughest bloke in the mill.
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