Burton's Workers

Post by **cnosni** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 10:40 am

Patexpat wrote: Croggy2 wrote: Montague Burtons provided the de-mob suits after the war, did they not? Having a full kit of clothes was having the "Full Monty".Is this correct? What an absolute gem Croggy2 ... makes perfect sense! Hope some one can verify!! Its supposed to be the case.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 11:55 am

cnosni wrote: Patexpat wrote: Croggy2 wrote: Montague Burtons provided the de-mob suits after the war, did they not? Having a full kit of clothes was having the "Full Monty".Is this correct? What an absolute gem Croggy2 ... makes perfect sense! Hope some one can verify!! Its supposed to be the case. I always thought the "full monty" was a 3 piece suit including a waistcoat, as opposed to a 2 piece lounge suit.Another phrase to enter the language was "going for a Burton".An explanation I heard for this was in WW2 the RAF used some of the meeting rooms that Burtons shops usually had above them to hold interviews for aircrew to see whether they were fit to fly again after injury.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 5:43 pm

wayniac wrote: I remember the huge Burtons Christmas kids party, they used to have their own panto and entertainment, somewhere off Eastgate. The line for Santa was huge at the party.Happy Days, Burtons used to look after their staff pretty well. I remember a couple of the children's xmas parties actually being held in the factory. They used to block book the panto at the Grand Theatre. This was in the mid 50's.

compton · Post by **compton** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 9:53 pm

blackprince wrote: After seeing Marc Ribaud's photos of workers in the Burton's Hudson Road factory I had a look around the web for more photos and recollections of Burton's.For such a large employer the available material on line is a bit sparse.Anyway I found one photo online which was reproduced for a book dust jacket. The photo caption says " Illustation of young women workers leaving Burton's Hudson Road factory , 1934.Looking at the photo I think the majority of the girls in the picture are too young to be workers. My guess is that the photo is really a party of girls from a local school on an outing to the factory and the older women in the photo are teachers.I know from other sources that Burton's did run such trips for school girls in the 30's and 40's. As the major employer of female labour many of these girls probably did end up working there.Given that the youngest girls in this photo will be in their late 80s now i don't expect anyone to recognise anyone in the photo, but you never know, someone might recognise a much younger mum or grandma.

compton · Post by **compton** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 9:54 pm

compton wrote: blackprince wrote: After seeing Marc Ribaud's photos of workers in the Burton's Hudson Road factory I had a look around the web for more photos and recollections of Burton's.For such a large employer the available material on line is a bit sparse.Anyway I found one photo online which was reproduced for a book dust jacket. The photo caption says " Illustation of young women workers leaving Burton's Hudson Road factory , 1934.Looking at the photo I think the majority of the girls in the picture are too young to be workers. My guess is that the photo is really a party of girls from a local school on an outing to the factory and the older women in the photo are teachers.I know from other sources that Burton's did run such trips for school girls in the 30's and 40's. As the major employer of female labour many of these girls probably did end up working there.Given that the youngest girls in this photo will be in their late 80s now i don't expect anyone to recognise anyone in the photo, but you never know, someone might recognise a much younger mum or grandma.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 10:08 pm

compton wrote: compton wrote: blackprince wrote: After seeing Marc Ribaud's photos of workers in the Burton's Hudson Road factory I had a look around the web for more photos and recollections of Burton's.For such a large employer the available material on line is a bit sparse.Anyway I found one photo online which was reproduced for a book dust jacket. The photo caption says " Illustation of young women workers leaving Burton's Hudson Road factory , 1934.Looking at the photo I think the majority of the girls in the picture are too young to be workers. My guess is that the photo is really a party of girls from a local school on an outing to the factory and the older women in the photo are teachers.I know from other sources that Burton's did run such trips for school girls in the 30's and 40's. As the major employer of female labour many of these girls probably did end up working there.Given that the youngest girls in this photo will be in their late 80s now i don't expect anyone to recognise anyone in the photo, but you never know, someone might recognise a much younger mum or grandma. Your message seems to have got lost Compton. Try again. BP

compton · Post by **compton** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 10:21 pm

blackprince wrote: After seeing Marc Ribaud's photos of workers in the Burton's Hudson Road factory I had a look around the web for more photos and recollections of Burton's.For such a large employer the available material on line is a bit sparse.Anyway I found one photo online which was reproduced for a book dust jacket. The photo caption says " Illustation of young women workers leaving Burton's Hudson Road factory , 1934.Looking at the photo I think the majority of the girls in the picture are too young to be workers. My guess is that the photo is really a party of girls from a local school on an outing to the factory and the older women in the photo are teachers.I know from other sources that Burton's did run such trips for school girls in the 30's and 40's. As the major employer of female labour many of these girls probably did end up working there.Given that the youngest girls in this photo will be in their late 80s now i don't expect anyone to recognise anyone in the photo, but you never know, someone might recognise a much younger mum or grandma. The girl 2nd or 3rd from left in black coat bears a striking resemblance to my auntie Rene, she worked at Burtons and time frame fits. Incidentally I was born at 1300 hrs. on a Saturday, I know this as I was told that Burtons hooter sounded as I appeared, one for the astrologers eh. My grandmother Mary started work for Burtons when he had two attic rooms in a building which would now be described as a sweatshop, but I must admit he was a very progressive employer in later years. I remember the lorry driver of the year event, was it all known as Burtons sports day, just asked the misssus, it was sports day, most of Harehills attended. anyone remember the Queens visit, still got a pic of her in the car going up Hudson Rd. The buildings with names changed of course featured in the tv drama "Leeds United," about the tailoring strike, " glory, glory, won,t yer give us another bob" all happened before the working classes were emasculated by Thatcher of course.

compton · Post by **compton** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 10:39 pm

Sorry about me restating things that had been said before and screwing up my first post, its a long time since I posted on this site and had forgotten how to do it, silly old sod.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sat 12 Sep, 2009 12:31 am

compton wrote: Sorry about me restating things that had been said before and screwing up my first post, its a long time since I posted on this site and had forgotten how to do it, silly old sod. No need to apologize. Thanks for your very interesting post.I share many of your recollections , including the factory hooter and the crowds of women workers leaving or entering the main gate.I lived in Compton Avenue at the time of the Queen's visit and stood on the wall of Crockatts cleaners near the corner of Compton Rd & Hudson Rd to see the Queen's car. If you've still got a photo of that visit any chance of posting the scanned image here?

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Wed 06 Mar, 2013 6:40 pm

This link to West Yorkshire Archives is relevant to this old thread. It has some interesting interior photos of Montague Burtons factory in the 1930's. And a photo of the Queen visiting the factory in October 1958. I was one of the kids waving my union jack at the bottom of Hudson Rd when the Queen & Duke drove past.http://wyorksarchivestreasures.weebly.c ... urers.html