Making gloves for the Prince of Wales and Harrods; wages of £3 a week; sewing gloves in the living room at home
FOLLOWING on from our feature about the Westbury’s gloves industry in a recent issue, readers have contacted us with more recollections.
• Local resident, George Styles, who used to deliver work from the town’s factories to homeworkers, has submitted a report he wrote several years ago which described how at one point there were six companies employing several hundred local people.
George wrote, “At the formation of the Westbury Heritage Society in September 1992, there existed just one small company left to continue this once thriving industry where there were, at one time, six companies employing several hundred in the factories at Station Road – The Westbury Glove Company, Alfred Street; V.C. Boulton Ltd, Edward Street; George Jefferies Ltd, Fore Street; The Kern Glove Company, Warminster Road; Reynolds & Kent (still existing), Westbury Leigh; and Boulton Brothers Ltd.
“These companies between them would have also employed over a thousand out-workers as this was a thriving cottage industry and although some male cutters worked at home, it was mainly married women who did the making and finishing of the numerous types of leathers and fabrics.”
Pique, Prixseam, Brosser and fabric machines were installed in the homes as well as in the factories, but the handsewn making was primarily done outside and George recalls his mother and next-door neighbour making a pair of handsewn gloves (one hand each) between them, this being a special urgent order requested of Boulton Brothers to be worn by the Prince of Wales at the funeral of his father – King George V in 1936.
George continues, “To make a pair of handsewn gloves takes about three hours and so this time was halved. The fact that the two gloves were identically matched, stitch for stitch, was something of a rarity. They were not told whom they were making them for until completion and fortuitously, it was only then that their hands took on a tremble.
“There were literally hundreds of different types and designs, particularly for ladies, for these were the times when the fairer sex were very fashion conscious, especially at springtime where a prevalent colour would be in vogue.”
All the firms mentioned produced their different ranges to cover all the seasons; Boulton Brothers perhaps more so for their extensive range of doeskin gloves which were, in the main, exported; Westbury Glove Company for their intricate designs; George Jefferies famous for the Bobby Lock Golf Glove; V.C.Boulton for their men’s gloves to Harrods and Canada and the Kern Glove Company for fabrics.
Gradually however, the industry found itself up against unfair competition in the form of subsidised imports combined with the motor car being afforded by most families.
George concluded, “The demand for British gloves began to wane, however the industry took up the challenge and a variety of driving gloves were produced and proved very popular. Gradually the motor car became more sophisticated with its heating and ventilation controls; even these gloves are now only purchased by the discerning driver. Coupled also with the design of modern garb, particularly the anorak with its deep pockets, is it any wonder that gloves are no longer mass produced? Unless of course the wheel turns full circle and who knows when the oil will run out?”
• Another reader, Colin Ludlow, shared his story about his late mother, Mildred, a homeworker for VC Boulton for many years.
He says he loaned the machine she worked on to the Westbury Heritage Centre upon his mother’s death in 2005, and it is still there today. “I was 54 when she passed away and the machine was at her house for at least that many years,” Colin says. “I have fond memories of it clacking away in the corner of the living room.”
The family lived at 12 Storridge Road, where Colin was born. He lived there until he married in 1982. He said, “My father was Edward Ludlow, he lived there until his death in 1985. I was an only child so no siblings.”
Colin also recalled George Styles delivering work to the house.
• Vicki Martin sent photos to White Horse News of her mum, Joan, who worked at Boulton Brothers from 1962 for four years.
Joan started working at the factory after she left school aged 15.
“My mum worked in a glove factory in Warminster and I remember her telling someone she wanted me to be a nurse, but I had no interest in that and I just wanted to get a job and live my life,” Joan said.
“My friend who I had gone to infant school with said, ‘I’ve got a job at this factory’, and I said, ‘I’ll come with you’, so we went, and I think I probably cycled.
“Most of the girls lived at Westbury Leigh and Dilton Marsh because they were close by. It was nice because we were all friends “
All the girls used sewing machines to make gloves and everyone had a part to play in the production. The older homeworkers did hand sewing. The factory made driving gloves for the Stirling Moss brand and golf gloves using peckery hog leather.
“The driving gloves were really lovely – they had a crochet back and leather to grip I got paid £3 a week and I remember seeing some of the gloves for sale for 12 and 6 – which was about 6 times my wages.
“We did these wonderful golf gloves – you would only do one glove, the right or left hand. They were beautifully made, lovely quality. That’s why they were expensive.”
Every Christmas the girls would all chip in for a meal at The Cedar Hotel – which is now The Chalford House Hotel.
One of Joan’s colleagues ended up marrying her brother, so is now her sister-in-law, and after Joan left Boulton’s her future father- in-law, Geoffrey, started work there as an accountant.
It was after leaving the factory and working at a garage for a while that she met and married Geoffrey’s son Timothy, and they went on to have three children.
• Isabelle (Izzy) Mantell who now lives in Birmingham heard about the White Horse News request for any information through her brother.
“My father was a partner at Reynolds & Kent, whose premises were above the old Oak Inn in Warminster Road (now the Aldi car park). Mr Reynolds closed his factory at Potterne near Devizes, after which my father, in conjunction with a Mr Roger Keene, brought up all the glove making tools and moved the firm to Westbury,” she said.
“As a teenager, I used to work there at weekends and summer holidays pressing the patterns (sharp metal hand cut-outs) onto the leather, ready for the seamstresses to sew the 2 halves together to make the gloves.”
Reynolds & Kent (R&K) made gloves for the King of Tonga and gloves/gauntlets for the Household Cavalry and they were awarded the Queens Award for Industry.
In the lead-up to the Falklands war, R&K lost the contract to supply the British Navy who instead awarded the contract to a cheaper supplier. But the polyester material of the gloves from the new supplier burnt through the sailors hands when the Argentinians bombed the ships and the Navy quickly reversed their decision and went back to R&K for leather/cotton gloves and gauntlets which better protected the sailors when hit by exocets or bombs!!
Izzy said, “I’m afraid that I have a poor memory and cannot remember how long R&K were active but I know that Prince Michael of Kent visited the factory at some point, and that Margaret Thatcher presented dad with some kind of certificate, but whether the latter was in conjunction with the factory I don’t know.
“I’m guessing one of those two actually presented dad with the Queen’s Award for Industry.”
