My mother was married three times I think. A Dutchman, an Irishman and a Frenchman. My father was the Irishman. He used to go away to sea alot. My sister got into trouble and my mother wouldn't sign the papers for her to get married. My sister worked in Frys then and she walked all the way from Bristol to Gloucester to get her father to sign the paper for her to get married. My mother used to work in the cotton mill up Barton Hill She had two fingers caught on her left hand. It was like a prison.

Then she worked in the corrugated paper factory in Portland Square. My mother used to work on the showgrounds. She used to go round different towns and villages. Both of them was away. My father was in the Merchant Navy. He brought us home all different things, Chinese tea sets, silks and that.

It was a couple of rooms we had in St. Pauls. It was a very old house. It was next to a timber factory, it was very cramped - slums. It was more slums than anything else. My mother had an undertaker for a landlord - He used to corne for the rent. She'd say. 'It's spent. I'll give you the order to bury me when I die.' She had the house for nothing because he died before she did.

My mother-in-law never had a hair on her head. Never had eyebrows, eye-lashes, nothing. She wouldn't wear a wig. She wouldn't have one of them that the Government give 'em.

I worked in the Ashley Vale Biscuit Factory when I first left school My first wages were 6/4d a week. That was seven in the morning till five at night. There was no union then. The unions wasn't known. Not at that time.

I kept looking at the boss's son. He said. 'What are you looking at me for?'

I said. 'Oouuou'. He said, 'Would you like a picture of me?' I said. 'Yes.'

He said, 'Go and get your cards and money. 'He gave me the sack.

That was the Ashley Vale biscuit company down in York Street. St, Pauls. His name was Don Wilkins. He was a cricketer. I had the sack a couple of times from there and went back, I had the sack from there once for eating the biscuits.

How Ihey used to make the swiss rolls years ago! .

We used to tip on the icing. Then there was another girl who used to pour the jam on and spread it on with a knife. It was all done by hand then, see. And then there was another girl who used to roll them up. Then there was another girl who used cut the edges off in a block, it was very clean mind.

Then I worked in St. Pauls in a factory called '.James Sack Factory',

And you didn't know whether you were carrying a sack of sacks or a sack of rats. The place was overun with rats. You did go inio the factory of a morning and look in the canteen, well tlie canteen was just a room where you had your morning breaks, and look out of the window.

They used to be sat up, the rats. like old men washing themselves. Just had to clap your hands and they'd scram.

They took the sacks in there to be beat and cleaned, from the docks, where they had linseed in them or maise or flour. They used to have gurt big machines and they had big beaters on them And you'd carry about 100 sacks all bound up tight, load the van and unload them when they did come back to be cleaned. About 100 people worked there. It was mostly women They used to get a couple of men to do the dirty work.

There was no union in the sack factory. Not at that time. If you give them a lot of old buck you'd get your cards, they didn't give you a second chance. You were out. Then on day I carried a sack of sacks and I screamed the house down because it was full of rats. The foreman said.'What are you screaming for?' I said. 'Well there's rats in this sack'. He said well your big enough to eat them'. Get your cards and money,' he said. 'Get out.'

Mr Manning was the foreman then. He was bloody horrible. He was hated by everyone who worked there.

Can anyone? remember when Ihe Dockland Settlement used to sell the hapenny dinners. Mash potato, corn beef and mustard pickle. There used to be one in Rosemary St. St. Pauls. Mr. Burtwell used to run it. He was a wonderful man.

I can remember when the ships came up to the centre. They used to call it 'Scivvies Island' because all the girls that was in service used to go down there to pick up a man. They did have Sunday afternoons off, from about four till nine at night. Nine at night they had to be back in service.

Then there was Billy Balloo. He used to go, 'Balloo!' And then there was Tommy on the wall. He used to say come on sit by me on the wall - He then tried to put his hand up your skirt -'dirty old bugger'. Both of them were put in the nut house out at Manor Park. Then there was Harry on the stool. He had no legs at all, they had to make a stool for him to sit on. He used to live in a lodging house down Gloucester Lane St. Judes.

All along Newfoundland Road was full of lodging houses, where men would lodge if they had no home. There was also a Salvation Army hostel for the down and outs. Anyone remember Mr. Body the sweep? He used to have a housekeeper there, she was a right old witch. If you wanted your chimney swept you had to knock on his door, you used to be frightened to death.

Even the policemen walked in twos in St. Pauls. One night they saw a donkey, so they whipped out their notebooks and started to write it down. One copper said to the other 'Ere, how do you spell Philadelphia?' The other copper said. 'I don't know.' Lets take the donkey to Milk Street I can spell that'

Philadelphia Street had a load of pubs down one side. And all the kids used to sit on the pub doorsteps waiting for their fathers to come home. Can anyone remember Melhuishes on the corner of Peter Street? They used to have the cream in the window where the old lady used to sit selling flowers.

We later moved from St. Pauls to Knowle West in a brand new council house. But i did miss St. Pauls.

Story By Mabel Hill.

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