Harry Lewis

Harry Lewis was interviewed by the Witney Gazette in the early 1960s [1] and was thought at that time to be the oldest worker in the British blanket industry. He first went to work for Thomas and Walter Early at New Mill in 1891 when he was thirteen years old:

I went to learn the spinning and we had to start as apprentices and wait for a vacant spinning mule, we had no pay but if the spinner felt like it, he might give us sixpence. I was lucky I got a (spinning) mule almost immediately and my first pay was five shillings and sixpence a week. For that I worked from 6.30 in the morning to 6 at night, with three quarters of an hour for dinner. The other employees had to start at 6am and they had to work 56 hours before they got any overtime.

After New Mill Harry worked at Newland, and then for Marriott's blanket company where he stayed for 60 years working on carding and spinning. He had only 8 days off sick during the whole of his working life. Asked what was the most revolutionary change he had seen during his seventy years in the industry he said:

It is without any doubt at all, the difference between the management and the workers; today they work together as friends. The bosses and the men pull together now much more than they used to do, and everything possible is done for the employees. They are all in clover today and I am very glad. The machinery is up to date; and they have a splendid canteen and hot water. You must not eat your food if your hands are dirty today, but when I started, we used to dip the kettle in the river, build a fire and boil it for your own tea. Yes things are very different these days.