| Description | An interview with Colin DAVIS, a married man with one son, one daughter, one step-son, one step-daughter, who is a Cadbury worker, born in Birmingham and now living in Birmingham. Colin DAVIS’s father was a Labourer, born in England and his mother a Housewife born in Scotland. In the interview, he talks about …
'COLIN DAVIS MS2255/2/063 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born on 4th August 1937…I lived at Weoley Castle….Move from Ladywood in 1936. Describes the housing and community.
02
Family background.
03
I started school at the age of 5 in 1942 at Jervoise Road Infant’s School….Story about playing football.
Describes childhood games and activities.
04
Continues to describe activities.
2.10 Recalls first football match at Villa Park.
05
06
Enjoyed sports at school.
1.50 I was 11 when I moved to Ilmington School on Weoley Castle….Improved academically and continued to excel at sports.
07
08
I left school when I was 14….Within a month I started Cadburys at 15 in 1952…Family tradition.
Describes working at Cadburys and the sports events.
09
Attended Bournville Continuation College for one day a week.
10
When I started Cadburys I wasn’t a very big lad….There was a post round….and a parcel dept. and I got a job there…. Describes his experiences.
2.07 In the factory, after I did 12 months on this job I moved into production….into confectionary….making all the centres…Office people who came through used to call it the Devil’s Kitchen…We used to wear clogs with steel toecaps….
3.30 Pay for paper round compared to work at Cadbury’s.
4.10 Social smoking.
11
12
13
Nowadays you’ll get bosses come in and they’ve been to university…they’ve never worked in a chocolate factory, but Cadburys, the actual family, everybody worked in a dept….. Remembers individuals and a visit from Adrian Cadbury.
3.48 Changes in chocolate making.
14
15
16
Changes in personnel.
4.38 Nowadays we have a lot of Pakistani and Indian people… we are becoming multi-racial….and you get chaps who come in and work with you. It seems as though the old school of working class people….has been divided…
17
And it’s not always easy….
1.17 Cultural and religious differences.
2.13 Discrimination….it’s worked the other way. We have people working in our dept. and you can’t afford to say anything out of place….You hear so many cases on the television….
18
I worked on production from 1952 to about 1966, and then I heard about a job going on the maintenance…to help all the trades people out….After a time they were talking about bringing different shifts in…. Results of changes at Cadbury’s.
2.10 2 weeks on the dole. Found a job at Sainsbury’s.
19
They called it continental shifts….and the only time the factory was closed….Saturday at 7 o’clock….and I went to work at Sainsbury’s for 3 years…1985… Difficulties of working with the public.
1.23 Cadbury’s only employing people on 2 year contract….to avoid taking on people permanently…. Describes the procedure.
2.20 Took on night shifts. Holiday periods.
20
Enjoyed working night shifts.
31” Cadbury World started up…. Ex-employees called back to work. Story about joining Cadbury World at the end of 89.
3.50 Word spread about the new part of the factory and visitors wanted to purchase the sample chocolates.
21
After 4-5 years we were getting 4000 people a day….it wasn’t designed for this amount of people….the bosses got a bit ambitious….a couple of years later it evened out and a couple of years after that it dropped a bit….Started cutting hours….to part-time…It changed….We had to train people who were coming in….
22
Pressure of training young people.
Ethos of Cadbury World changed. Mostly video material.
23
We’ve always had a union….never been a situation where the workers have rebelled against the family for anything….We used to hear about friends who worked at the Austin….out on strike….
2.12 When we went in with Schweppes the union had to become a lot stronger…a lot of subsidiary things were taken away… Sports activities decreased.
24
Swimming baths at Cadbury’s closed down.
Story about a hot summer in 1956.
3.50 Technology is getting so clever and speeding up so much from the 1950s to the present….
25
Details out of work activities. Story about playing for Cadburys.
3.14 Married in 1965 and moved into rooms.
3.55 Daughter born in 1968.
26
Story about moving into house in Hay Green Lane.
2.35 Married for 24 years when relationship broke down.
3.27 Account of meeting his current wife.
27
Continues account.
28
Over a period of about 8 years we were courting….decided to get married…in 1998…
Holidays.
29
Memories of WW2.
ENDS. |