Barbara Phelps, nee Elling, worked for about 18 months at Boreham Mill, on the River Wylye, on the eastern side of Warminster. On the afternoon of Friday 24th April 1998, Danny Howell made a tape-recorded interview with Barbara, at 30 The Ridgeway, Warminster, the bungalow where she spent the last part of her life. This edited transcript of that recording was first published in Warminster Wylye Valley And District Recorder, No.8, published on 1st December 2007.
“I worked at Boreham Mill for about eighteen months, roughly, from spring 1955 to August 1956. I know it was spring when I started but I can’t remember which month. I was 18 years old. It was the first job I had as an employee. Before that I had worked self-employed, keeping poultry at Corton. That wasn’t too bad. I had over a hundred chicken in pens, not deep litter. I lived at New Farm, in what was called Heytesbury but was later changed to Tytherington. That’s where I was born. My name before I got married was Barbara Elling.”
“I rode to and from work on a bicycle. I loved cycling. My bike was an Elswick which I got from Roger Dale’s shop in Warminster. I had one or two bikes, at different times, from him. Originally I had an old Raleigh bike which I learned to ride when I was about 12 years old. The Elswick bike I rode between New Farm and Boreham Mill and back was fairly old-fashioned. It was painted black. I rode via Tytherington, Sutton Veny and along Sutton Veny Common and then on through Bishopstrow. It was a bit of a drag over the Common but I didn’t mind because I liked cycling. Once I met a cow on the road and I was petrified, so I hung back until someone else came along. An old man called Mr. Brown came along on his bike and I rode past with him. I was always frightened of cows. That’s true, I’m not having you on. I still don’t like cows now.”
“I left home about eight in the morning because I had to start work at half past eight. I used to get up about ten minutes before I had to set off, just long enough to get washed and dressed and grab something to eat. I didn’t bother with much to eat and I was certainly no early-riser.”
“I got the job at Boreham Mill after seeing it advertised in the Warminster Journal. I wanted to get a job because I wanted to get away from home. I phoned up and made an appointment to see the manager, James Spence. I went for the interview with him but I can’t remember much about that. It must have gone well because I started the job soon afterwards. Wiltshire Farmers had the mill.”
“Jim Spence lived at Nett Road, Shrewton. He used to drive to and from work in a little car and he used to park it right outside the office window. Jim Spence was still living at Shrewton long after he left Boreham Mill. If he’s still alive he’s probably still up there at Shrewton now. When he finished at Boreham Mill he went to work at Salisbury, selling grain in a large way.”
“I had to do clerical and general office work. I had to make out the tickets for the drivers, I typed out letters and envelopes, and I filled in the sales sheets. I made out the monthly stock lists and I had to answer the phone. We had a little switchboard at Boreham Mill. We had a telephone in our office and one in Jimmy’s office. I had to learn how to use it. Percy didn’t have a phone in the mill. If you wanted him you had to walk over there and find him. When I answered the phone I used to pick it up and say ‘Hello, Wiltshire Farmers.’ I didn’t know an awful lot about how to use the phone until I went there, although my parents had a telephone at home. They had a phone at home ever since I could remember.”
“There was another woman in the office. That was Mary Carpenter from Horningsham. She was Mary Carpenter when she was single. She got married, she got divorced just before or just after I started at Boreham Mill, and she married again to Jim Russell. He worked for Wiltshire Farmers at Melksham. That’s how she met him, over the phone. Mary showed me what I had to do and I picked things up quite easily. I made a few mistakes to begin with, like we all do sometimes, but nothing too dramatic.”
“The office was on the left of the mill, round the corner, in an L-shaped wooden building. It was at the front of the mill but on the left as you approached the mill. The furniture in the office was only a built-in shelf, a desk and an old table. You sat on an old kitchen chair to do the typing. There were a couple of filing cabinets and a cupboard. There was nothing in particular. We had an electric fire in the corner to keep us warm. People wouldn’t work in those conditions today. I even cleaned the windows outside one day. I stood on the back of a lorry to do that. My jobs were many and varied but I didn’t mind.”
“I worked at the mill five and a half days a week. That was Monday to Friday and then Saturday mornings. The pay was less than £3 a week. By the time I left it was about £2 19 shillings and six pence. It wasn’t a particularly good wage but I liked the job. I was paid weekly. Mary Carpenter paid me my wages. I gave my mum part of my wages. I gave her ten bob. That was my keep and my mum was alright about that. My mum was a happy-go-lucky person.”
“I worked until five, or maybe it was half past five. I can’t remember. I think it was half past. We had an hour for our lunch break. I took a packed lunch with me. I used to take some slimming rolls to eat. I can’t remember what they were called. You could buy them in a great big box. That’s what I used to eat. I was on a diet. They didn’t have a room, a canteen, for eating your lunch. Oh no. We ate in the office. There were two office rooms plus a little room in between where we hung our coats. I had to make the mid-morning coffee and the mid-afternoon tea.”
“The manager James Spence was short and thin. He was quiet and reasonable. I met his wife and children. He had three sons. The younger sons were twins. That was James and George. One of them, George, had only one good arm. He was born like that. His left arm, I think it was the left one, reached only to about the elbow. I didn’t see much of the oldest boy but the twins used to come to the mill on some Saturday mornings and I had to entertain them. I used to get them writing and drawing. Things like that. That was part of my job. They were about four years old and I didn’t mind. I loved kids. Jim would bring them in on Saturday mornings. I suppose his wife had gone shopping or something. George had a little crease in the end of his arm and he used to stick pins in it and he’d go round pricking people with these pins. He was a dear little chap though and I liked him a lot.”
“I wasn’t frightened of my boss, Jim Spence. I used to stick up for myself. They wanted me to go on a typing course and an accounting course, which were held on Wednesday afternoons and in the evenings but I wouldn’t because I was 18 and everyone else on the courses was 15. I didn’t want to go and that was that. I told them I liked my job but if it meant losing my job if I didn’t go to the classes I would rather lose my job than go. They just said oh well if you don’t want to do it then fair enough. They were prepared to pay for the courses. I got by without doing the courses. It didn’t make any difference to my job. I suppose they were thinking ahead, wanting me to take over Mary’s job if she left but she was there all the time I was there. I could stick up for myself. Same as when I wanted a wage increase I wasn’t afraid to ask Jim Spence for one. I asked and I got it. I didn’t really have a lot to do with him but I got on alright with him. Jim, Mary and me; that was the three of us in the office. There was also three people in the mill, and there were three drivers and two reps.”
“The three in the mill were Percy Miles, Cecil Cornelius, and Paul Warwick. Percy Miles was the foreman. He lived on Boreham Hill. Percy’s daughter Diana had worked in the office at the mill just before I started working there. She left before I started. Percy was in charge of the men in the mill and he was in charge of the goods in and out on the lorries. The drivers had to go to him for their tickets. I got the orders off the phone or in the post, or from the reps. I made the tickets out and gave them to Percy and he handed the tickets out to the drivers when he decided who was doing what. Percy saw to the deliveries. I got on alright with Percy Miles. He was a lot of fun. He used to make us all laugh. He was a happy bloke. He used to make a joke about everything. That’s how he was.”
“Cecil Cornelius worked in the mill. He was known as Bud. He had been working there forever. He was an elderly man. I’m sure he was older than retiring age in those days but then I was only 18 and everyone looked old to me. He had white hair and he was of medium build. It was in the paper when he died, quite a few years after. He must have been old when he died.”
[Cecil Cornelius died peacefully in his sleep on 10th February 1988 at his home, 31 The Ridgeway, Warminster. He was 87. His funeral service and cremation was held at Haycombe Crematorium, Bath, on Tuesday 16th February 1988.]
“I didn’t have a lot to do with him. He was quiet. He lived in Warminster and he used to come to work by car.”
“Paul Warwick was also in the mill. He was also a relief driver, if necessary, if one of the regular drivers was ill or there had to be an emergency delivery. He lived with his father just along the road from the mill, at Bishopstrow Road. Paul now lives at Southleigh View, Warminster.”
“Wiltshire Farmers also had a boy who worked at the mill at various times. His name was Rex and I think his surname was Hardy or Harding or something like that. He lived in one of the council houses in one of the Deverills. I think it might have been Monkton Deverill. He used to come in on a bicycle. He worked at the mill before I left. I think his family moved and Wiltshire Farmers didn’t replace him at the mill.”
“The three drivers were Brian Hallett (who we all knew as Les) from Bishopstrow; George Payne (that’s Geoff Payne’s father), who was an elderly man; and Alfred Hudd, who now lives at 20 Cobbett Place, Warminster. Brian had the big lorry, Alfred had the medium-sized lorry, and George had the small lorry. Actually there were four lorries, because at one time they had employed another driver, but he had left, and Paul Warwick when he was doing relief occasionally drove that particular lorry. The lorries were painted blue and had the name Wiltshire Farmers on them. One of the lorries, the spare one, was green, but I suppose that was because it was older. I’m not sure about that. The lorries had a bit of a side to them, all the way round. If the lorries broke down or needed repairs they were taken to a garage at Wiltshire Farmers’ main depot at Melksham. The lorries were kept across the road, opposite Boreham Mill, on the other side of Bishopstrow Road, where Beeline have got the coach depot now. I think there was a petrol pump in there where the lorries filled up when they needed it.”
“Percy Miles used to keep some chickens in a pen over there and fertilizer was stored there as well. The fertilizer used to come into Warminster by rail. Fertilizer went out about twice a year according to the season. Most of it went direct from the Station to the farmers but any that didn’t go direct was stacked across the road from the mill and then sent out later from there. I didn’t go over there very often.”
“The two reps were Bob Horner from Winterslow and Ron Bull from Dilton Marsh. Ron later lived up Grange Lane, Warminster, where his widow Barbara lives now. Bob Horner used to come in about once a fortnight. Ron used to come in more often, bringing his orders in. We saw a lot of Ron. He was alright.”
“There was quite a big trade at Boreham Mill. It kept those three lorries busy for five days a week. Boreham was just one branch of Wiltshire Farmers. The main branch was at Melksham and they had other branches at Sherston and so on.”
“Our patch, from Boreham Mill, went down to Henstridge that way, Winterslow going Salisbury way, up to Shrewton, and round to Littleton Panell over Lavington way, and over the other side of Frome to Trudoxhill and back this way towards Maiden Bradley. That was the area. Farmers would phone in saying what they wanted. The bulk of the trade was cattle cake and then barley meal for pigs. You had cattle cake one and two, and pig meal number one and pig meal number two. And chicken corn and pellets. Corn was brought into the mill to be processed. Some of the farmers paid for their animal feed by sending in grain when they couldn’t pay money. They sent in grain at harvest time if they couldn’t pay for what they owed for cattle feed. There was a fair amount of grain coming into the mill. Barley was ground into meal and oats were crushed. The grain was brought in, in sacks, and then hauled up on a chain, up through to the top of the mill.”
“The mill was very noisy when it was working and it was very dusty. They used to brush the dust out but it was white everywhere when they were grinding the meal. You couldn’t see Percy Miles for the dust. He looked like a snowman, he was all white with the dust. He used to wear an old trilby hat, grey trousers and a brown overall coat thing. He used to change every night before he went home because his clothes got so dusty. He would come to work in the morning and get changed into his work-clothes when he got there. There wasn’t a proper place where he could get changed, oh no, he’d get changed in a little area right up at the top of the mill.”
“They used the water wheel for powering the mill. They had all these stairs going up each flight. They were very, very steep, and very open. I fell down them many a time. If I had to take a message in to Percy I’d run up the stairs and run back down them and I used to fall down. I never got hurt. They had a piece of wood to hold on to on the bottom steps but as you got up higher to the third or fourth ones you only had a rope to grab on to. It wasn’t very safe. They used to have cats and kittens in the mill to catch the rats and mice, and very often these cats would disappear where they fell down in between things. It was tragic really. They’d get different cats but they’d get killed or lost. I never saw any rats but I expect there were some.”
“The mill was up together but the office was wooden and falling to pieces a bit. The mill was fairly dark inside. If there was a pile, a big heap, of corn or meal, you couldn’t see behind it if you were looking for someone. You’d shout what you were asking and a voice would come back from somewhere. There was lighting in places in the mill but it wasn’t very bright. The floors upstairs were wooden.”
“The grain went up through the mill from opposite the front door and then it came down to the right of that, down the shutes, and they put the sacks on the end of the shutes to fill them up. They got through a hell of a lot of sacks. They used to hire them from the West of England Sack Company. They used them for the corn and the sacks were sent back after they had been used. They were hessian sacks. Wiltshire Farmers had their own sacks, paper ones, for the cake. Chicken corn was in a hundredweight; barley was in something like a hundredweight and a half; and oats was in a two hundredweight sack or something massive. There were different weights for different things.”
“The mill doesn’t look a lot different now to what it was when I worked there. The loading bays were in the front but they are not there now. There was a loading bay to the left of the front door and another loading bay round the right side. Just inside the left of the front door was the stairs that went straight up. Straight ahead was the chain for taking the sacks up. To the right of that were the shutes coming down. If you went up the stairs you saw the machinery in front of you going all up through. You turned left and there was a desk round there and there was another set of stairs. You kept turning left after the stairs to go up the other ones. The mill stones were quite big. They were thin and were at least four feet across, maybe six feet or something like that across.”
“The little piece of land between the mill and the road was a garden for the mill house. The house next to the mill was nothing to do with the mill. The Berridge family had the house. I had to go over there to make the drinks because there were no facilities in the mill for the staff to make a drink. Mary paid the Berridges a small amount so we could use their water and use their gas to boil the kettle. I would go into the kitchen there and make the drinks and carry them back into the mill on a tray.”
“I saw quite a bit of Granny Berridge. I saw Mr. Berridge occasionally. I’d also see the woman who lived in and did all the housework and cleaning – Mrs. Dyer – that was Sylvia Gregory’s mother. Well, Sylvia’s father used to work for my father on the farm at Heytesbury. Sylvia’s uncle also worked for my father for years. They milked cows and did the haymaking and general work. Mrs. Dyer was tall and thin. She later lived in one of the bungalows at St. George’s Close, Warminster.”
“The house next to the mill was always unlocked so I could go in and out to make the drinks with no problem. I could go in the front door or the back door. It was open house there because they had the office there for the taxis and the taxi drivers were in and out all the time. We had a tea break in the morning and one in the afternoon. I never used to drink tea. Percy used to say that I, for someone who didn’t drink tea, used to make a good cup of tea. I’ve never drunk tea. I don’t like it. Even now I don’t drink it.”
“Across the other side of the yard from the mill, near Berridge’s house, were two toilets for the mill, one for the men and one for the women. We had a toilet and a wash basin. That’s all we had and that was filthy. I cleaned it all up when I first went there. They used to keep odd bales of straw in the loft above the toilets. The loft wasn’t very good and all the bits of straw would come down through and fill up the wash basin and toilet bowl.”
“They didn’t have any hay, not that I can remember, but they had a few bales of straw because private individuals would come, especially on Saturday mornings and buy straw and a few pounds of corn for rabbits and chickens. People would come to buy bits and pieces like that. We sold them small amounts of barley meal in little paper bags. Warminster people would come to Boreham Mill to buy things like that but only a few. We didn’t have too many customers in that line. George Cornelius would deliver out small stuff to people over as far as Lavington and Devizes way. He’d deliver small amounts like 28 pounds or half a hundredweight of meal or corn to people in cottages who kept chickens or pigs. I did the cash sales at the mill. People came in and I wrote down what they wanted. I priced it, they paid me, and I gave them change if necessary. I gave them a ticket which they took over to Percy and he gave them what they wanted. Those people paid cash.”
“The farmers had accounts. Members, because Wiltshire Farmers was like a co-op, had a different colour bill. They got a discount. One bill was white and one was blue. I can’t remember which colour the members got but that was so we knew who had money in the firm and were eligible for the discount. We didn’t charge them although we made up the tickets, because those tickets went to headquarters at Melksham and the bills were sent out from there. But the customers used to send the cheques back into us.”
“Mary did the banking. She took the cheques into the Midland Bank in the Market Place in Warminster. When she was on holiday I had to do it. I would put the money and cheques in the saddle bag on my bicycle and ride into Warminster. I would stand my bike up in Warminster, you never tied it or chained it up, and go off into the bank. Your bike would still be there when you come back out. The money was paid in, all separated out, cheques, notes, silver and copper. We took in hundreds of pounds each month because people had monthly accounts. We used to pay the money into the bank every Thursday or Friday I think. Stocktaking was done every month. Percy would fill in a big sheet listing what was in the mill and I had to compare that with what had come in and gone out. If need be, if something didn’t agree, I had to go over to the mill and count sacks but that wasn’t too bad because they did stack the sacks neatly, so many this way and so many that. If you couldn’t find what you were looking for you had to look again until you did find it. Occasionally there were queries. The bosses from Melksham only came over once when I worked there but they were on the phone several times a day about orders and queries and all sorts of things. There was contact by phone. The headquarters, as I said, were in Melksham, and the Melksham branch similar to the Boreham branch was in another part of Melksham. This is before it moved to by the roundabout in Melksham where it is today.”
“I resigned in August 1956. I left to get married. I met my husband Louis Phelps through the mill. His father had a farm out at Codford and they had a lorry. Louis used to come into the mill to pick up pig food and cow cake. I met him when he used to come into the office. He took me out on a date, first of all, in November 1955. His father had two farms and Louis was working from four in the morning until about nine at night, so he didn’t have much time to see me much after that. He took me out again in March 1956. We got engaged after three weeks and married five months later. I was 19 and he was 29. I wasn’t bothered about the ten year age difference and my folks didn’t mind. They were pleased because they liked Louis. He was more interested in me than me in him to start with when we first met. He used to stand in the office nattering away to me for so long. He would get told off at home for taking so long picking up the feed. He was in no hurry to get back. Then he’d arrange it so that he could pick the cake up just before the dinner hour so that he could spend all the dinner hour with me. Jim Spence used to go out at dinner time and Mary would go off into the other office and leave me and Louis together.”
“The Phelps family had Anzac Farm (which was split up into three when it was sold after they retired) which they owned, and they rented Ashton Gifford Farm. I left the mill a week before I got married. I gave my notice in. They didn’t mind because we were all friendly and they knew I was going to get married. My notice had to go through official channels at head office in Melksham. I was giving a leaving present. My work colleagues chipped together and they gave me a tray, a jug and six water glasses. Mary gave me something too. She gave me a cake dish with a handle on. I haven’t got those things any more. They’ve gone.”
“Louis and I got married on 1st September 1956 at Corton Baptist Church. We were the last couple to get married there before it got converted into a house. After I got married I didn’t go out to work again. I started a family – two daughters Kim and Collette and two sons Royston and Clinton.”
“Looking back I enjoyed my time at Boreham Mill. I really enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun but then, don’t you think, life is what you make it. We didn’t want things like people do today. And of course I met my husband while I was working there so that was one good thing about it. I’m not a person who looks back. I’m interested in now and the future. When the past is gone I forget it. The world is different today.”
Footnote: Barbara Phelps passed away on 12th January 2006. Her husband Louis predeceased her on 5th June 1995. Their ashes were interred at Pine Lawns Cemetery, Warminster.