Janet Harris (nee Mulcock)
Employment came to East Tilbury for people who were needy and everyone from all the surrounding districts got on their feet or bikes to get there. It was like a gift from heaven. A little kingdom was springing up surrounded by green pastures intermingled with poplar trees. fresh air and a feeling of well being and everyone wanted to be part of it.
Czech men and women were in charge and they were very efficient with their own way of doing things – very different from English firms. Do this! Do that! was the order of the day. However, they provided all kinds of facilities for the workers and their families, i.e. cinema, swimming pool, tennis club, children’s swings, accommodation for dancing classes, women’s clubs, gymnastics, arts and crafts. Such events as Horticultural Shows, Sports Day, Firework Displays, Dances, Staff Dinners and Children’s Christmas Parties were a norm every year. A lovely place to grow up in. BUT, houses went with the job so – no job – no house.
The tenants of the Bata houses were expected to keep the inside and outside in good order. There was a garden competition every year. Tenants not up to standard were pulled up.
In the early days operators would work so late into the early hours of the morning, i.e. 4 a.m. that they would sleep under a conveyor until 7.30 a.m. ready for work the next day – I know – my Dad Harry Mulcock was one of them.
Each member of staff had part of their wages paid into an account. This was used to pay debits which might occur in their department and if a healthy profit was made a withdrawal was issued very month.
One day, as a story goes, the Managing Director found a screw on the ground outside the factory gate and immediately instructed the stock keeper to take a close inventory of his stock to prove that no nuts, bolts, screws etc. were missing in bulk. Another incident apparently transpired when the MD asked a man who he was and why he was wandering about the factory grounds. Not getting a quick answer he told him to go to the Staff Department and get his cards. The fact was that the man was there on business and not an employee at all.
My Grandad, Thomas Mulcock, worked as a Gatekeeper and one of his duties was to control that everyone clocked in and out of the factory. One day the MD came by in his car and held his card out of the window saying “Here, clock this”. My Grandad replied “My orders are that everyone clocks their own card”. He was sacked.
Everyone in the early days was almost afraid to breathe. It was – all heads down – from 7.30a.m. to 5.00 p.m. with 10 minutes break mid-morning , 1 hour for lunch plus 4 minutes mid-afternoon only in the workshops in the Leather and Rubber factories for personal reasons.
Apart from our parents’ ordeal, us children had a good upbringing in the Bata world with all the facilities as mentioned above. Everything was clean and pretty with lots of rose gardens outside the Hotel (Community House as it was then known). Also we could wander over the farm fields, surrounding the Estate, to our hearts content. I suppose we got up to mischief; which child doesn’t, but if we were seen our parents would know because everyone knew everyone.
The houses were excellent and very sturdy with flat roofs – continental style – very unusual from normal houses of that era. All the gardens were very adequate. As the years passed we saw the Estate grow and prosper. We considered our initial downfall to be the building of 900 houses at Fenlands Park at the rear of the Bata Estate. Things really changed then. Gradually we lost this and that until in the end there was nothing left except the senior citizens club and bingo. Children’s lives altered rapidly – the safe, cosy place they had known was attacked by the big world.
