| Contributor |
Frank Poynting |
| Date of Birth |
Not given |
| |
| Interviewer(s) |
Naomi Rourke |
| |
| Place of Interview |
Archers Court |
| Date of Interview |
10th July 1999 |
Frank worked in the
Nestlé factory in Salisbury from 1941 till 1982.
From 1941 - 1962 he worked in
the milk area of the factory. This involved pouring milk from churns which it
was transported in, to larger containers. These were then transported to London
to be pasteurised and bottled. Lorries would collect the milk from all the
farms locally and take it to the factories. This milk was then weighed for each
separate farmer. This was measured in pounds and stones. There was a special
job for someone to do this. When units were changed to imperial they were not
given new machinery which measured in these units so they had to convert it
manually. However they were very close to London and newer factories were
bigger and fewer. Nestlés in Salisbury was only small and with transport
and communication improving it started to become more economical to bypass
Salisbury and taking it directly to London. Nestlés did not have the new
technology needed to compete. It used to be that there was a spring flush with
milk. This was because calves were only being born in the spring. During this
time the factory would make condensed milk to deal with surplus stock. However
soon cows were giving birth to calves all year round and there was always lots
of milk, too much for the small factory to deal with. Because of this, this
area of the factory closed down in 1962.
From 1962 onwards Frank worked
in the warehouse. This included making deliveries up, unloading and loading
boxes. This originally was done by hand, a backbreaking and time consuming
process. However then palettes were introduced. This meant that boxes could be
stacked and all moved together. Forklift trucks were then introduced to move
these palettes. This made it easier but also meant that less staff were needed
and so some were moved to different areas of the factory or made redundant.
However this new technology demanded larger, purpose built warehouses. These
were built to accommodate new forklift trucks and because of this the warehouse
in Salisbury ceased to be used and a new one nearby was built instead.
Frank then worked in the packing
station till he was made redundant in 1982. This involved the packaging of raw
materials for the vending machines in larger factories. New machinery to assist
in this process was not introduced as it was thought that the factory was too
small and inaccessible to make it worthwhile. The factory was closed down in
1982 and all workers were made redundant.
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