The Wartime Flax Factory Near Uckfield, Sussex
I didn’t have to do any war service of any kind as I was nearly 43 years old when the Second World War started and Pete was disabled, but my neighbour, who was younger than me, had to do some war service and talked me into it. We needed the money too. I did not pay income tax, as Pete was unemployable, having lost one eye and the use of his left arm in the First World War, but was on a very small pension. He was able to look after our home when I was working, but my two sons were in the army. My young daughter was at school, so I paid a pound a week for a neighbour to help look after her.
I worked full time for full pay, most of my three years there as a charge hand on the bottom floor at a halfpenny an hour more than the workers under me. Laughable at today’s standards, isn’t it?
The flax factory where I worked was built for war production of strong fibre. At the time, we were told not to talk about it or say where it was, but I think the Germans tried to find us and bomb the factory, for there was one ‘land mine’ (a large bomb set to explode above ground) that exploded near the house about a quarter of a mile away. Although it did nothing like the damage intended, it took the double steel doors of the back entrance off their hinges and frightened the young girl working in the furnace room so much that it took four or five of us to calm her down and get her to safety.
We wore light brown overalls that were provided free, white cotton masks over mouth and nose to prevent us breathing the dust and also used our own headscarves to keep the dust out of our hair. We took the overalls and masks home to wash them.
The buses that took us to and from work pulled just off the road into a big yard past the canteen, where two girls worked and where we had a good cooked lunch (I believe it cost one shilling and ten pence). We also had a tea break in the afternoon, and similar breaks on night shift. We worked day and night shifts on alternate weeks, day shifts being from 7am to 5pm Monday to Friday, night shifts 7pm to 6am. If we worked Friday nights we usually had a bonus. A lot of the younger girls would not come in then as their wages would be just over 4 pounds a week, which meant they would have to pay income tax, and they preferred to have a long weekend. Field workers worked only days of course.
The building was strongly built of reinforced concrete and had two floors. Strong girders supported the high roof and the pipes that ran below it. Very little wood was used in the construction, just the one foreman’s office and the seed room. The women’s toilets were set way back from the machines against the outer wall of the first floor where we worked, and the men’s toilets were on the ground floor.
Only three middle-aged men worked regularly on the ground floor. One young woman with a light two-pronged pitchfork and a brush kept the floor clear of straw around our feet. She brushed it to one side, and the men cleared it away from there to the baler, which could be operated by one man, but was sometimes operated by two. They picked up the straw and pressed it down well, then pressed a button to operate a hydraulic press, repeating this operation until the baler was full. They then tied the strings that had previously been laid round the bale and pressed another button to release it.
We had loads of storage space, but had too much straw to use. I do not know what happened to the surplus. It could not be burnt because of the blackout and could not be used for cattle in case any flax fibre was still in it that would cause fibre balls in their stomachs and kill them.
The fibre was said to have a hundred uses, among which were the following:
Webbing of all kind, e.g. for parachute harness, personnel equipment such as haversacks, belts, ammunition packs, lanyards and bandoliers.
Gun covers, hatch-covers, sails, teats and groundsheets. Salmon fishing lines, cords and strong thread for sewing leather etc. The finest ‘beater tow’ was used for making banknotes. ‘Tackers’ ends’ for sewing boots.
Nothing was wasted. When harvested, the whole plant was pulled up to get the greatest possible length of fibre. The fibre was separated into a number of grades that had specific uses. The seed from which the flax was grown originally came from Kenya and some of the seed produced was sent back to that country. Apart from seed put on one side for further production of flax, the rest was used for linseed oil and cattle food. Even the roots that were trimmed off were used for fuel in the factory furnace that provided heating and power for the machinery. The factory was on a large farm or estate, the rest of the land being used to grow the flax. It was harvested by the older men, Land Army women, and later prisoners of war. They had their own foreman and a tractor, and always worked days, but the indoor force were divided into two shifts that worked alternately, one week on days and the next week on nights. Each shift had its own foreman and engineer.
The raw flax was brought by tractor to one end of the factory and laid out on a conveyor belt with the roots on one side and the seed heads on the other. It was also necessary to ensure that the plants were laid thinly and straight across the belt so that the machines did not get clogged. The roots were cut off short by the machinery to be directed into large galvanised iron pipes leading to the furnace room. A man there shovelled them into sacks that were held open by hooks. A young woman hooked on the empty sacks and removed them when they were full.
The machines called ‘beaters’ and ‘scutchers’ separated the strong fibre from the rough straws, and the fibre came out at the end to hang over two steel bars. The women lifted it off in large handfuls to look at it by way of a first test of quality. At this stage, it was shiny and looked like fine pale golden hair. The women twisted it loosely round their arms then folded it in half and laid it in large bags. The most valuable fibre, the longest and strongest, was selected for such purposes as salmon lines, while the shorter and thicker fibre was used in many other ways.
Peter, my elder son, was demobbed in 1946, and I had Eric’s wife coming to stay with me as Eric was still abroad when their daughter, my first grandchild, was born. So, it was then that I reluctantly had to give up my job at the mill.