The successor to the Cable Works in Lydbrook was Reeds packaging who made corrugated cardboard packaging. Here Valerie Matthews describes working at the factory and its being taken over by a Scandinavian company. In the 1970s and 1980s ‘work study’ became a popular tool for increasing productivity. In this clip she also describes the role of unions and her perceptions of management at the factory.

Valerie describes the closure of SCA Packaging when the owners centralised production in Newport. Staff were offered relocation or redundancy. Valerie found a job she enjoyed at a currency exchange in Gloucester. 

Joan Bevan had been working as a Post Office counter clerk whilst she studied typing, book keeping and later shorthand at 'night school' at Technical College. She was seeking better pay and conditions when she was interviewed for a position at the Rank's factory in Mitcheldean. 

Fred Pensom's father, George, had picked up a back injury working as a miner at New Fancy colliery in the 1940s. As mining in the Forest went into decline other more attractive opportunities began to open up. 

Meryl Teague left Bells Grammar School at 17. She was interested in clerical work and handling money, and secured a job at Carters, 'the Ribena factory', in Coleford. Here Meryl describes how she got the job and the nature of the work she did.  

Family connections could often be the route into a job. When Lydney's Tin Plate Works closed down Mike Hinton found work at the near-by Pine End Works joining several members of his extended family.  

Sensing that Meredith and Drew would close Glenda Griffiths looked for a new job and left despite her employers improving her conditions to try and keep her. Some regarded this as disloyalty. She found a new job at Rosedale and describes the work and her new company’s owner.