Working at Huddlestone's Shop
Margaret Green's memories
I left school (it was the temporary school in the former American Hospital buildings in Wimpole Park) at the age of fifteen, and went to work at Huddlestone's, where I recall I earned 27/6d a week from which was deducted the sum of 5/-. I think the deduction was to cover the cost of overalls and my National Insurance contributions.
I was one of the four girl assistants.
I can remember my first job was to convert a two hundredweight sack of grain into two pound bags and wrap them up. I can also remember dried fruit coming in forty pound blocks, which also required weighing out into smaller packages. After grain and fruit, I progressed to weighing lard - the twenty eight pound blocks were cut with a cheese wire.
Another skill I learned was how to bone a side of bacon.
I also rode a bike round Orwell and nearby villages, collecting orders.