Please note this is not a full complete transcript but a detailed summary of the recording

00.00 RC was born in 1960 and grew up in Grove Leaze, Shirehampton. He was the youngest of 4 children. His father worked in the docks for 41 years starting as a craneboy and after National Service progressed to be a crane driver and then foreman. His mother worked part time for the Shirehampton Park Golf Club for 21 years. RC went to Shirehampton nursery, infants and junior school, followed by Portway Comprehensive. His earliest memories are of a playing in a gang of 6 boys all about the same age. 04.29 RC describes the village and the many shops that thrived there in his childhood. 05.00 He remembers Leonards Shoe shop, Woolworths and the Lifeboat pub which is still there. There was a good toy shop where he recalls seeing his first Chopper bicycle but way out of his family's price range costing almost a month’s wages. In the bakers he remembers boxes of loose biscuits and buying a bag of his favourites. Mrs Ray’s shop sold loose sweets which her cat would lie on and he remembers liquorice covered in cat hairs. Around November 5th she sold to the children coloured matches which lit up red or green. No restrictions in those days. MDW’s was a hardware shop. One day not paying attention on his new bicycle he ran into the owner’s car and ended upon the bonnet with bent front bicycle forks. 10.00 RC describes the shops in Bradley Crescent including The Beehive an off licence where he would buy draught sherry for his mother. The Beehive gave money back on empty bottles so RC and his friends would get the returned bottles that were stored outside at the back of the shop and take them in to get money back. They did that for years until the owner realised what they were doing. RC explains how all the little shops made a living in those days. Growing up he and his friends played around the river bank and locks and fished off the rocks at Gunpowder House. . 12.51 RC remembers riding his friends BSA Bantam motorbike without an exhaust pipe – very noisy. 15.00 From an early age RC remembers the PBA (Port of Bristol Authority) Club. Later he joined their skittles club. RC left school at 16 in May 1977 and got a job with the PBA. 18.44 He describes his first day working as a messenger boy. Two years later at 18 he was paid a man’s wage so did a man’s job and went into the ‘labour pool’ to be assigned a job. 20.00 He describes his next job in the granary where he booked in animal feed Lorries keeping the timesheets. Later he earned good money loading and unloading ships with animal feed. 22.36 He describes how the different food was stored and processed once it had been downloaded. He said Barley was itchy and some grains were dusty so there was an extra ‘dust’ payment made. 25.00 Continues describing the granary. Wages were paid in cash from the Time Office on Fridays. Three years later the granary was closed by a Brussels ruling that human food should not be stored in the same silos where animal feed has been stored even though the silos were cleaned after each use.. 26.55 He went back to the ‘labour pool’ and for a time worked at Bristol Docks as a labourer. 27.38 RC describes his next move to the hydrographic surveying department basically monitoring mud in the river. He describes it as the best job he’s ever had. 28.08 He describes the surveying process. 30.00 RC continues describing his surveying job. 31.53 He remembers the survey team he worked with and the Queens visit when his boat was used by local dignitaries for refreshments. 35.00 He also remembers taking some men from the Ministry of Transport out in his boat in 1985/6 who told him they were looking at the possibility of putting a second crossing over the River Severn. 35.44 Steering the boat through the ‘shoots’ was exciting like going into a big funnel. Ray Longden was the best boat skipper for controlling his boat. 37.13 RC describes working on the smaller boats and changing the six large car batteries that powered the Firefly buoy at Portishead. Two electricians and two fitters had to jump from the boat onto the buoy to do a job one man could do. When the surveying was amalgamated with the dredging section he stayed for a while but it was a too boring. 40.00 He describes what the dredgers did and why he left in December 1988. 41.52 RC describes pulling two dead bodies from the river while working on the boats. 45.00 One was a prostitute who had been murdered. 46.33 RC talks about how he met his wife Caroline. 47.52 He describes how he found his next job as a carpenter working for Graham Chamberlain Builders in Clifton. 50.00 The Phoenix Road Show was the name of a mobile disco business that he had a half share in with his childhood friend Phil Taylor. He talks about some of the venues they played in and how they lost hundreds of records dropped from their trailer as they drove home after a road show. 55.00 He enjoyed the business and in particular one gig at the Bristol Exhibition Centre working for 4 French food stalls that had French go go dancers. Interview ends 57.24 TOTV018-02 00.00 Looking at a photograph of the hydrographics boat RC remembers working on it for around 4 years. The mud hardly moved from year to year except at the mouth of the docks. 1.10 He describes how the new dredgers sifted the mud and let the tide do the rest. He was on the Severn Dredger. He left in 1988. When he went to Chamberlain builders he took a big drop in wages. 05.00 He was only at the builders for six months before he was offered a job at a local smelting company. He met Caroline when he was 17/18 and she was 16/17 and they married in 1984. His father and mother in law came over to the UK from Ireland in 1958. He explains how the Irish found employment wherever the money was. 09.38 He describes Britannia Zinc the Australian smelting company he worked for. 10.00 He explains how the ore was processed to produce lead, cadmium and white acid. 11.25 He describes his first job as a store man in their massive storeroom 13.03 Later he moved to the smelting works. He worked on the refinery side as a relief process officer which meant he had to learn all the different jobs. 13.27 There were good and bad jobs which he describes. The fireman’s job working in temperature control was good but casting the metal was not pleasant. 15.00 He continues the description of processing. He describes it as a good job, interesting and good fun but dangerous. A ruling from Brussels changed things. 18.11 Blood tests were introduced to check lead levels and there were tests for carbon monoxide poisoning. Twice his blood was ‘leaded’ with high levels of lead when he worked in the blue powder plant and he had to go back to the refinery until he recovered. 18.44 RC describes working in the blue powder plant and the process of reclaiming lead from fine talcum powder like dust particles. 20.00 RC continues describing the process. 22.22 He also had carbon monoxide poisoning. He describes how it happened and how it was diagnosed and treated. 25.00 He thought at one time thought he would have to go in a decompression chamber. Returning to work he was called into the office and told the company wanted to sack him because he wasn’t following safety guidelines after having full training. In the end he was put on a final written warning for 18 months. 12 months later the works closed. 28.30 RC describes the closing down process 30.00 He worked at the factory for 15 years. It closed in March 2003. 31.07 RC explains how he got a HGV licence in his spare time while working at the smelting factory and left to work for M & J’s Transport for a short time to try driving for a living. He describes what it was like and where he went. 35.00 He didn’t like driving much and when he was laid-off he went back to Britannia Zinc and they gave him his old job back. 36.50 He worked with children for a short time but didn’t like it. He was still doing carpentry in his spare time and decided to become self employed. For the past 15 years he’s built up a good reputation working locally in Shirehampton. 39.31 RC remembers childhood holidays in Exmouth. 40.00 The family always stayed in a flat there and rented a beach hut. 41.24 He had his first car at 19. 44.30 His first time abroad was his honeymoon to Corfu. 45.00 RC describes the different houses he has lived in during his marriage. 47.34 He had two older brothers and one older sister but it was his cousin Jenny’s husband Keith that he really looked up to when he was young. 49.10 He remembers Mods on scooters and seeing his brothers ride off on them. He learnt to ride on his father’s Lambretta. 50.00 He talks with affection about his mother who he describes as the life and soul of the party at the PBA club. 51.20 He loved going scrambling on an old motorbike with his friends. 53.27 He thinks he had a happy childhood and was well looked after and cared for. As a boy he remembers going to the Saturday morning Savoy Cinema and also going with his brothers to the ABC Cinema at Whiteladies. His father was brought up by his aunt Carol. 55.00 His father’s sister was also ‘shipped’ out to live with another aunt. He doesn’t know why that happened but remembers visiting Carol a couple of times a month when he was younger and travelling on the Pill ferry to get to Portishead where she lived. 56.15 RC talks about Carols children. Her son John was musical and quite well known locally. Once the ferry stopped running in 1974 he can’t remember if his father still visited. He doesn’t know why his father didn’t learn to drive although his mother learnt in later life. Track ends 58.22