The working day

“When I first joined Royal Enfield I was surprised at the number of elderly men who were working in the factory, some as old as 80.”

“They had returned from retirement to help in the war effort but although general events during the war years were dramatic and exciting, life on the factory floor was extremely dull. We ordinary people just did what we were told, we got our heads down and worked. Everybody worked long hours, I worked from eight in the morning until seven at night every weekday, then on Saturdays I worked until four-thirty or five. We had a ten minute break at ten o'clock an hour for lunch and fifteen-minutes break at 5:30.”  

“By the end of the day, we were just glad to fall out of the factory and on to our bus.  There was a whole fleet of Midland Red buses lined up down the drive waiting to take the workers home. One bus would be going to Inkberrow, another to Studley, one to Alcester and so on.“

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