I thought I should do another episode of John Day’s reminiscences of apprenticeship at the Royal Arsenal in the 1930s. This one will cover piecework; the Crossness Explosives Pier and then a lot about big bikes in the 1930s.
In my last
episode I ended with a story of a man being paid for ‘piece work‘ . John then described what this meant. It was all very complicated and so i saved it
up to include it in a new article where I would have more space.
‘Piece work’ was a system of payment where each job
came with a card bearing the price that
that job would earn. That price had been set by the ‘price fixer’ who was supposed
to know exactly how long each job should take .... and inevitably set off a number of arguments. John explained that in the Arsensal there was
a minimum wage that a workman was expected achieve based on the cumulative
value of the jobs he had done during the week and they should at least equal the
minimum wage. If he consistently did not do so there was a fair chance of his
“getting his cards”. I assume everyone knows what ‘getting their cards’ meant
...... I’m sure in this day and age
there’s a totally different system - it’s a long, long time since I last had the
sack!
A
reasonably skilled man could exceed the minimum and be paid for all the work he
had done up to a set limit, which was about one and a half times the standard
wage. A good man could exceed this and on Saturday mornings you would see men
shuffling the week’s cards to get as near the maximum as possible while leaving
some cards for later weeks. This caused problems if a man left, as he could
have cards for several week’s work which had never been done and the cards for
it had never been counted.
Apprentices were not on piecework,
though occasionally one of the older ones, on a repetitive job, would go on it to
earn a little more money. If a man had an apprentice, adjustments were made for
instructing time and for money earned for him by the apprentice. John commented “Most of the time it probably
balanced out”.
John said that he could not remember if
working ‘a closed week’ earned him overtime or a week off later. An
apprentice’s wages in the first year was 12/-a week from which contributions
for ‘unemployment’ – 10d. - and a friendly society contribution - 12d. - were
deducted. As a result he received just under 11/- a week.
There was a rise of 2/- at the end of the year and the wages went on up
until, when he was 21, he got 63/- as a young journeyman - the union rate
[12/- is
twelve shillings – about 60p. 10d. – 4 p.
12d. is 1 shilling - 5p. 11/-
is eleven shillings, 55p. 2/- iz two
shillings – 24p. 63/- is £3.15p.]
The friendly society membership was for
sick and similar insurance and his stamped card had to be sent in every six months.
He belonged to the Ancient Order of Foresters whose secretary was Brother Moss
of Verdant Lane, Hither Green. The Foresters still very much exist with a
big headquarters in Southampton and they date from the 1830s, set up to help
workers ‘as they walked through the forest of life”.
John also gives descriptions of various
areas within the Arsenal. One was a story of a visit to Crossness Explosives Pier. This
was located on the River at the eastern end of the Arsenal in what is now East Thamesmead
- Thamesbank Place is apparently on the site.
It was a specialised facilty for loading ammunition and gunpowder from
the nearby tumps - used as magazines. For more information and some pictures
see https://www.royal-arsenal-history.com/royal-arsenal-piers.html
Sometimes John would visit the pier to
accompany a specialist, Andy Clements. after a call about equipment needing attention.
It meant a trip out to the eastern end of the Arsenal, often in the wet. They
liaisded with the ganger on the pier who he describes as ‘an excitable Maltese
whose name was Cordelli’. Once there Andy
would keep Cordelli talking while John surreptitiously moved the offending drum
on the crane slightly. Then Andy would go up to the offending crane, wave his
arms about and shout strange words whereupon the crane would begin to work
again – Cordelli, he said, was ‘convinced Andy was practising some kind of
magic’.
He also describesd ‘a near miss’ on
that pier. A three-phase electric capstan was being installed and John had the
job of wiring it up to its starter which was hung on the rear of a small wooden
hut which straddled the rail tracks. Looking round the hut he saw a couple of
railway trucks heading straight him. The inevitable happened, the trucks hit
the hut which toppled over onto the starter and ‘everyone on the land side of
the pier thought I was underneath’. Happily he had nipped out of the
way.
He then describes what he calls ‘The short lived
Royal Arsenal Sports Association Motor Cycle Club’. This was in 1935 and I guess that many of you
will be more interested in the bikes themselves rather than the people or the
Arsenal. Happily John describes a number of the bikes which the members had and
I’ve been looking them up on the net. It hasn’t always been easy to match up
the information which John gives about the bikes with what I finding on the
websites – but I’m happy to get corrected information and I’m sure there’s lots
of you out there who will have it. I’ve also tried to find out what they asre
worth today. There’s nothing like the big
bikes. It’s been said they were too noisy and dripped oil – but wasn’t that the
whole point?
He says the club began in the Electrical Shop with Bill
Beresford who had ‘03 Norton’ which I can’t identify. Norton were of course the
long established Birmingham company who in the 1930s were manufacturing
motorcycles for the military and other official bodies in their thousands . I
also note that in the 1930s their
civilian machine was the ‘International’ with a strong reputation in
professional motorcycle racing and described ‘ as evoking a golden age of
motorcycling’. I also their post
war reputation plus a short term ownership by Plumstead based AJS.
Value today from £5,000 to £25,000 plus.
Then there was Bill Croft who ran the battery shop that charged and repaired all the dilly and other accumulators in the Arsenal. He had an Enfield Twin and side car’ Royal Enfield were a Redditch company also making machines in vast numbers. A1 search says “premium, high-performance luxury motorcycles often paired with sidecars.” Value today Today from £8,000 to £25,000 plus.
Percy Harris rewound small armatures an-
it was said that he did more private vacuum cleaners than official motors. He
had a 649cc vertical twin Triumph and sidecar, described elseswhere as ‘one of the most iconic engines in British motorcycling
history’. Designed in 1931 as an overhead-valve
parallel-twin motorcycle for the Coventry based British Triumph Engineering
Company and designed primarily as a durable sidecar hauler. Value today - one
is currently advertised at £16,5000.
Meredith Smith – Merry
Smith was in the drawing office. He was responsible for the heating in the about-
to be- re-opened Nottingham Ordinance Factory. I was aware that the Arsenal had
had various branches all around the country and I’d visited one In
Scotland but I was unaware of this one
on Nottingham. It seems to have employed many thousands. It had opened during
the Great War but later the site had been closed and sold and was then
repurchased in the 1930s when it seemed likely that the Second World War would
happen. It’s now a trading estate dominated by the buildings of the Experian
Company. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROF_Nottingham. Norton overhead valve motorcycles were introduced in 1922 and were iconic
British singles and twins known for performance
Len Shum worked in thed drawing office, He had a Overhead valve Raleig36 ‘iconic British machines., single-cylinder and later twins, renowned for racing success’ from the Nottingham manufacturer. However Raleigh had stopped production of motorcycles a year before this. Today they sell at between £3,000 and £9,000.
Len Dent. He had a MAC Velocette described as ‘economical, unglamorous transport’ quality machines hand built by a small firm in Birmingham. Value today £3,500 - £8,000.
Charles Day – John Day’s father who had a 1150 cc
Brough Superior and sidecar- the Rolls
Royce of motorcycles. This is a machine produced by the son of the original
Brough manufacturer, Nottingham based
Brough Superior – whose machines were almost all custom built. Value today £45,000 - £400,000 (!!!)
Then there was John
Day himself with a model 9 Sunbeam. Wolverhampton based Sunbeam was actually a
subsidiary of ICI but in the 1930s was taken over by Plumste I ad based AJS. This 6493cc OHV single-cylinder British motorcycle produced from
1924 to 1939, was known for its
high-quality construction. One currently for sale £6,785.
The club met on
Sunday mornings at the Prince Imperial Monument facing the Royal Artillery
Institution. I'm a bit confused by this and I can’t find a reference to the
Prince Imperial monuments on the Arsenal site. The Prince imperial was the son
of French Napoleon III who livede in England in exile - the Prince was killed
in 1879 in one of the Zulu wars. The Prince Imperial Monument is said to have
been his statue which stood outside the Royal Academy buildings in Academy Road
and since moved to Sandhurst. I think where they actually met was in one of the
two Riverside Guard houses on the Arsenal site where the Prince's body is said
to have rested after it was brought to England and before being taken for
burial.
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