{"id":17651,"date":"2022-08-24T15:32:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T14:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/?post_type=events&p=17651"},"modified":"2022-09-07T20:31:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:31:30","slug":"girls-wives-factory-lives-looking-back-to-churchmans-after-fifty-years","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/events\/girls-wives-factory-lives-looking-back-to-churchmans-after-fifty-years\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Girls, Wives, Factory Lives\u2019 \u2013 looking back to Churchmans after fifty years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Churchmans Tobacco Factory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I entered the shop floor of the small Bristol tobacco factory, Churchmans, in 1972. I wanted see, hear and smell the work and to talk to women manual workers about their work, their lives and their views. They were called \u2018semi-skilled\u2019 workers. What they did, weighing and cutting and rolling tobacco awed me with its speed and skill. Yet they could talk above the overwhelming rattle of machinery. Amazingly, I could interview them too. I had approached several larger factories in Bristol to do research, and even to get a job. Nobody else would have me. And it was lucky I wasn\u2019t allowed to work, but could only interview, provided I didn\u2019t \u2018interrupt production\u2019 \u2013 because I couldn\u2019t have managed those jobs, jobs which were supposed to come with women\u2019s \u2018natural dexterity\u2019 – \u2018fiddly jobs\u2019. There were women ranging from sixteen to around forty across the factory. I talked to them, asked them questions and they asked me questions. We had group discussions. And I probed views, which once got back to management (\u2018what was I talking about equal pay for?\u2019).<\/p>\n

Looking back after fifty years brings home several striking things. Most factory work in Bristol, indeed in Britain, is a thing of the past. Iconic manufacturing sites are now parts of industrial history. If you Google Bristol Churchmans, the Bristol factory is absent (only the Ipswich site comes up). As for the Imperial Group, which owned Churchmans (the corporate history is explained in the book), I see online \u2018Imperial Brands\u2019, no longer in Bedminster, but still a global company in a spanking modern complex in Ashton Gate, where \u2018We celebrate the enduring success of our iconic, much-loved tobacco brands. At the same time, we are innovating to create potentially lower-risk products, delivering increasingly satisfying experiences for consumers\u2019. Its building says \u2018Blu\u2019 \u2013 a vape company. In Europe, they own Gauloises.<\/p>\n

And looking back at the early 1970s? It was a time of union militancy – the dockers\u2019 strike, Pentonville Five and more (all in the book) and the birth of the Women\u2019s Liberation movement. I wanted to explore women\u2019s working lives hidden from history. \u2018Girls, Wives Factory Lives\u2019 (p. 19) explores Churchmans as \u2018what lay on the other side of this silence among a group of women workers within the walls of one, small, \u2018ordinary\u2019 factory: young girls, mothers, housewives \u2013 a group so often dismissed as \u2018conservative\u2019, \u2018apathetic\u2019 or \u2018backward\u2019! My research uncovered a complex of voices, living with and against capitalism and the men around them.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I entered the shop floor of the small Bristol tobacco factory, Churchmans, in 1972. I wanted see, hear and smell the work and to talk to women manual workers about their work, their lives and their views. They were called \u2018semi-skilled\u2019 workers. What they did, weighing and cutting and rolling tobacco awed me with its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[212,433,197],"tags":[1604,1605,469,873,1606],"class_list":["post-17651","events","type-events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class","category-women","category-workers-organisations-strikes","tag-churchmans","tag-redcliffe","tag-tobacco","tag-trade-unions","tag-women-workers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Girls, Wives, Factory Lives\u2019 \u2013 looking back to Churchmans after fifty years - Bristol Radical History Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brh.org.uk\/site\/events\/girls-wives-factory-lives-looking-back-to-churchmans-after-fifty-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Girls, Wives, Factory Lives\u2019 \u2013 looking back to Churchmans after fifty years - Bristol Radical History Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I entered the shop floor of the small Bristol tobacco factory, Churchmans, in 1972. 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