Before the mid-1940s many people left school at 13 or 14 years of age and often went straight into the same work as their parents: “You followed your mum and did the work they did”. As jobs and industry in the Forest changed this became less predictable, but large employers such as Rank Xerox still often saw whole families working there.
School itself was a mixed bag for many of our contributors. With the Education Act of 1944 schooling became compulsory until 15 years of age. This was also the advent of the ‘tripartite’ system (Grammar, Technical, and Secondary Modern education) that persisted until ‘comprehensive’ education in the 1970s. The Labour Party were enthusiastic about the opportunities for social mobility afforded to working-class children by grammar schools and several of our participants talk about the implications of the entrance exam for their future. A university education was still only a remote possibility for most Forest young people until the 1970s. There was though a strong tradition of technical education in the Forest through employers such as Red and White buses, the Army and institutions such as the Forest of Dean Mining and Technical College at Cinderford. |
Until the 1960s many working-class women had their future occupations predetermined by a powerful set of expectations about their roles. For Winifred Foley her 14th birthday represented, "that she was old enough to get her feet under someone else’s table…For girls, going into service was our only future".
For many women this persisted even in the years after the Second World War. It frequently meant moving away to London, Cheltenham or the home counties - wherever there were large houses, colleges, or institutions that needed domestic staff. Marriage and children often brought this to an end as many husbands regarded working wives as inappropriate and even an insult to their masculinity. This began to change with shifting economic circumstances and married and single women found employment in light manufacturing, food industries, retail, and professions such as teaching. However, within these settings there were continued expectations about the types of work men and women should each do. Domestic responsibilities in the home persisted as a full-time occupation for many women and this continued even when they were in employment. In the Forest, as elsewhere, this began to radically change towards the end of the Twentieth Century. |
For many men in the Forest when they left school they were expected to follow their father into the pit. As well as mining there were other occupations linked to the colliers such as railways, general transport, timber supply and engineering. There was also work to be found in quarries, tinplate works and other heavy industries - all the domain of men.
These industries were characterised by being heavily unionised and requiring hard, physical labour. Some of our contributions reflect on the the last days of coal mining in the Forest and the uncertainty this decline created as men moved around surviving pits that were successively closed. Better pay, improved working conditions and perceived job security came with the growth of large employers such as Rank Xerox, and Carters, transport, light manufacturing and commutes to employers in Gloucester and other places outside the Forest. Forestry remained an important employer for workers and managers, and our voices reflect its shift from silviculture towards creating leisure opportunities as a new focus. For many men national service offered the opportunity to acquire new skills that they brought back to civilian occupations. Towards the end of the twentieth century the decline of Rank Xerox created another period of economic uncertainty and changes to traditional job opportunities for men. |
Foresters had traditionally exercised their rights to mine for coal, whilst also grazing sheep and pigs in the Forest. When employment in the pit was uncertain or pay was low these activities provided food and additional income to ensure family life was sustainable. For villages that had access to the Severn or the Wye there were opportunities to farm the river for salmon or elvers. Our contributors describe the importance of these sources of food.
Keeping a pig at the bottom of the garden was common in the Forest and whilst an important source of food it was also remembered as a source of despair as slaughter time saw the loss of a family 'pet’. By the end of the twentieth century in the Forest the practice was virtually extinct. Overfishing, licensing, and conservation have also brought salmon fishing and elver fishing almost to an end, and the shift to fewer fishermen with more commercial motives. Sheep badgers too, who were small scale shepherds – often colliers with small flocks - were superseded by fewer shepherds with much larger flocks, less efficiently managed. Foot and Mouth Disease, tighter regulation, and forestry management had progressively diminished sheep commoning by 2001. |
The Second World War had a profound effect on the Forest. The war itself brought the occasional German bombing but also brought evacuees, foreign workers, army personnel, Prisoners of War and most of all, ‘G.I.s’. The War opened up Foresters to new experiences, people, and opportunities.
Several contributors recount their childhoods against this background, whilst others describe the experiences they brought with them when they came to live in the Forest after the War ended. As Dennis Potter observed from the perspective of working people at the time: “the war had been won, our government was in, and they were starting to build houses…” The War saw shifts in the population of the Forest as servicemen returned with wives and women who married G.I.s left for the US. Prisoners of War stayed, and in the decade that followed industries actively recruited people from outside the Forest. Many contributors recall rationing continuing after the War, though rural self-sufficiency reduced the hardship. Most revelled in the changes and opportunity in the post-war era. Women had jobs previously filled by men and although many occupational roles reverted to their pre-war gender profiles, changes had begun. Most of all there was a new culture brought by radio, television, cinema, cafes and printed media. |
Factories, mostly involved in light manufacturing, thrived in the Forest of Dean of the 1950s helped by the low cost and availability of labour, and wider industrial growth. As mining was in decline these new employers offered cleaner, safer jobs, and also opened up more opportunities for women. Many of our contributors talk of forming close networks and friendships through the clubs and mutual societies attached to these factories.
In 1940 British Acoustic Films (BAF) moved from London into the Mitcheldean Brewery Buildings. It later became part of the expanding J. Arthur Rank Organisation specialising in sound recording and reproduction equipment. The factory grew in size and in the 1960s Rank Xerox began making photocopying equipment, massively increasing the workforce (many of whom were ex-colliers). Many of our contributors worked there in various stages of its expansion, decline, and finally closure in 2017. Meredith and Drew built a factory in Cinderford in 1950, whilst Rosedale - the manufacturer of plastic goods - had opened in 1945. In 1949, Remploy established its factory at Parkend to employ disabled people (including ex-miners). In Lydney the Pine End Works was in operation for more than 40 years occupying a 14-acre site built by the government in 1940 to manufacture technical aircraft and marine plywood for wartime requirements. Whilst factories offered the hope of security, as with coal mining that preceded them, they were unable to compete with imports in the world market and most were gone by the end of the century. Even so, some of our voices' former employers, such as Albany Pumps, continue in the Forest to this day. |