Coming to Leicestershire

Migration from Wales

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I left Wales in 1923. My brother couldn't get a job and I, I was working in a shop at 3/- (15p) a week. My aunties lived here, and they came to live in Leicester in 1913 because of the depression - there was no work in Wales then. And one of my aunties made a friend of a Leicester girl, and she came to Leicester for a holiday and she liked Leicester so much she got a job, there was plenty of work in Leicester at the time. So they came to Leicester.

So in 1923 we had no work, I was only in the shop, the music shop, at 3/- a week, my brother couldn't get a job at all, and, er, so my aunties wrote and asked us to come to Leicester to live with them you see, so we did.

Well Leicester at that time was the boom city of the, of the country really. There were unemployment, there were; the shoes were working on full, quite busy, and the hosiery was busy, I went to get in a shop in Leicester but they were paying 10/- (50p) a week and, er, tuppence on sales, you know, on every pound, well I thought I shouldn't sell much because they were going to put me on a counter, and I didn't, it didn't appeal to me, so I went in the hosiery and I went to A W Swan's at the time, and of course I worked there all my working time, I done all right and Swan's, it was quite a good firm.

You can hear more of this tape on request. Contact the Records Office and quote Accession Number 000409 Collection Number LO/029/C29.

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