Richard Moore

draft interview transcript before closure

ichard started at the jam factory in stacking on the 29th of August 1983. Within one week he was up at high level jam boiling. Then the jam factory went to shifts and Richard became the charge hand on retail A section.

Now there is more structure and focus than there was then in the jam factory. It was chaos. There was more staff and when you used to do early shifts when you were going home at two the manager would say, “Hang on, I need you this afternoon,” so you would work six in the morning to ten at night. This was a regular occurrence. You did more overtime than you did regular hours. There was no discipline. Some people would work Monday to Thursday, get six hours overtime, take Friday off and get the same amount of money.

Richard found out about the job because his Dad was a charge hand in the Engineering shop. Charles Manson interviewed Richard and fell asleep during the interview!

Richard’s father worked for the jam factory for twenty years. Once he fell in a tank of jam. He was standing on a tank to change a light fitting. And he had to go to the Engineer’s shop to get a new switch. When he came back the tank had been replaced by another. Richard’s Dad jumped up and fell right in to the tank, then jumped out.

He also used to smoke in the boiler house but would deny it. Richard once caught him smoking and he said, “I haven’t.”

The jam factory used to have a five a side football league one. There was a pitch below the car park. There were darts teams and a skittles team called the Motley Crew that Richard was captain of. It used to be more social at the jam factory. More friendly. There was a social club. Now it’s more work related. People feel like they have to work with you so they don’t want to socialise.

The jam factory has employed generations of families. Employees used to drink out of jam jars and wear wooden clogs when cleaning down because of the acid.

It’s a shame that the factory is closing. A real travesty. There are five or six generations of family that have worked here and a lot of friendships that will be lost. A lot of it is because this has been operated as a stand alone factory, whereas other factories are operated as part of a group and more profit driven, although the jam factory made a profit. But you wouldn’t think we were closing because the attitude that people want to help you is still there. If there is a problem, people are there to help you sort it.

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