Title
Olive Ratcliffe describes the impact of factory work on her mental health
Subject
WW2
Description
Olive Radcliffe describes the ways in which working in a Leicester wartime factory impacted her mental health
Creator
EMOHA
Source
EMOHA68-22
Publisher
EMOHA
Date
1940s
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Oral History
Original Format
.mp3
Duration
1 min 40 secs
Transcription
No, they were a decent lot to work with, you know. It was quite a decent factory, you know. But, oh no, I used to do long hours as well. And I used to do a month’s nights and a month’s days, I used to do 60 hours a week. And when I worked at Armstrongs Sidley’s, I had a breakdown.
Really?
When I went to the doctors, he told me it was me nerves, you know. He asked me. He said, ‘nervous debility’, they called it in them days. And he told me, I’ve got to, ‘I haven’t got to go to work.’ And he asked me ‘how long I’ve been working’, you see, ‘how many hours’ and I said, ‘60 hours a week’. And he just looked at me as much to say, ‘ I can’t believe that.’ And he went out, you see, and he came back, he said ‘I’ve been having a conversation about you’ so I said ‘have you’ so he said ‘yes and I’ve found out you’ve been telling me the truth.’ And I said, ‘of course I’m telling you the truth, I’ve been working a month’s night, a month’s days, 60 hours a week.’ And you used to take in a [unintelligible] to keep yourself awake at overnight. Because, I mean, it was more or less a 12 hours shift, you see. And you would come out of there in the morning and didn’t know where you was with smoke and that and that’s what done it. I felt so bad one morning I had to go doctors, and that’s how I finished up.
Really?
When I went to the doctors, he told me it was me nerves, you know. He asked me. He said, ‘nervous debility’, they called it in them days. And he told me, I’ve got to, ‘I haven’t got to go to work.’ And he asked me ‘how long I’ve been working’, you see, ‘how many hours’ and I said, ‘60 hours a week’. And he just looked at me as much to say, ‘ I can’t believe that.’ And he went out, you see, and he came back, he said ‘I’ve been having a conversation about you’ so I said ‘have you’ so he said ‘yes and I’ve found out you’ve been telling me the truth.’ And I said, ‘of course I’m telling you the truth, I’ve been working a month’s night, a month’s days, 60 hours a week.’ And you used to take in a [unintelligible] to keep yourself awake at overnight. Because, I mean, it was more or less a 12 hours shift, you see. And you would come out of there in the morning and didn’t know where you was with smoke and that and that’s what done it. I felt so bad one morning I had to go doctors, and that’s how I finished up.
Interviewer
Colin Hyde
Interviewee
Olive Ratcliffe
Feedback