C: Packing tea c1930
The Docks in the Twentieth Century
Women workers in the docks
Although the vast majority of workers in the docks were men a small number of women worked within the dock walls or in jobs closely connected with the operation of the docks.
They worked in the offices handling the enormous amount of paperwork which went with the movement of large amounts of goods.
They were also involved in cleaning and catering. During the First World War women came into the docks to undertake a variety of jobs in warehouses and on the quayside.
B: Florence Mugridge worked in the offices.
'I think they'd only been employing girls for about four years before I came, so it was quite a new idea... The hours were from nine till five thirty and one o'clock on Saturday...
When the wool sales were on, our busy times...then it would be the bills that were to be made out for all those different merchants for the wool they'd bought.'
Then I was lent to Trinity House head office... You had a woman supervisor there to see that you got on with your work... this room was full of these machines and they made a heck of a noise. I suppose there were about fifty machines there, 'cos that is where the main women were employed... I [was] glad I was only lent because it was much better in the dock.'
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Contact
Nigel Sagar
Design and Technology
London Borough of Barking
and Dagenham
Email: nigel.sagar@lbbd.gov.uk
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