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Memories of Neilston Mill (Part 2)
| Submitted By : |
Netta McDade |
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| Date Submitted: |
15th January 2004 |
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| Department: |
Not Supplied |
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| Length of Service: |
22 Years (1948 -1970) |
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| Reason For Leaving: |
Not Supplied |
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| Mill Memories / Comment: |
Memories of Neilston Mill (Part 2) |
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Everybody brought in a change of shoes as you did not wear your outdoor shoes in the flat. As you walked up and down at your machines you needed flat comfortable shoes. You also brought your own cup to work as the tea trolley came round at 9.30 am one week and 10.30 the following week it sold rolls but most of the girls brought in their own pieces with them. The canteen supplied dinners, soup, main meals and sweets. A plate of soup was 3d and the dinner was 1/3 d. You brought your dinner tickets daily or weekly and if you were less than 16 years of age you got your meals cheaper. Our canteen manager was Bessie McCormack and she made wonderful soup.
The tea breaks were 15 minutes in the morning, with dinnertime being
one hour. Some people worked through their tea breaks to make up their
pay and drank their tea as they kept working.
Round your waist you wore a knotter that was used to tie your thread
ends from the cop to the bobbins. When you were on special work (knotless
thread) you wore a strap round your waist with a small tin attached
to it which held glue and a small ball bearing inside and the lid
of the tin had a small hole in it, which you run your fingers across
to join the thread from the cop to the bobbin. All waste thread got
weighed every week and if you had produced too much waste, you were
questioned by the foreman.
Over the years the floors on the flats were changed from wood to concrete.
It was a big upheaval as they moved two machines at a time. The toilets
were modernised and moved from outside of the flats to the inside.
Transport
The train left from St Enoch station in Glasgow to Neilston Low station, workers came from Pollokshaws, Kennishead, Nitshill and Barrhead. I got on at Nitshill and it was the steam trains with compartments that had pictures above all the seats. Two ladies came on at Pollowshaws with their shawls folded over their arms. I think their names were Roberts they were the last of the shawl carriers. The train fare from Nitshill was 3/3 p return per week.
As the years went by young people from Househillwood were employed and the mill put on buses (SMT)The buses left from Househillwood roundabout (where the Pollok shopping centre now stands) and they picked up workers along Peat Road , Nitshill Road, the Hurlet, Bowerwalls, Dovecothall and Kelburn Street. The fare was 2/8p and it came off your wages every week and you were supplied a bus pass. The bus came at 7.30am, other workers came by train from Beith and Barmill but most of the workers came from Neilston and Barrhead.
There were Polish girls working in the mill and they lived in the Neilston camp, which was an ex-army camp this was in the late forties.
Social Life
The Mill Hall, in Neilston, was used for the worker’s for social activities, dances were held regularly and news of when these dances were on was spread by word of mouth. The mill hall still plays a great part in the community life of Neilston and is used for weddings, dances etc. I still see people who I used to work with in the mill and still have friends who worked with me in the mill.
The Mill closed for its annual holidays at the Paisley Fayre, the first fortnight in August. You worked on Christmas day and you got two days holiday at the New Year. I had some fun times at the mill, when it was the winter we used to open the fire escape door and bring in snow and started to throw snowballs at each other and when there was too much hilarity the gaffer would come to see what it was all about and got you back to work pronto. One new year a few of us got a bottle of sherry and were having a gay old time in the flat but the foreman did not find it funny and we got suspended for one day and we told our mothers that the mill was on short time.
There was also a bus crash on the low road to Neilston bringing the workers to the mill, many of the passengers were seriously hurt and this was in 1965.
I hope you have enjoyed my memories of my time at the mill
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