Memories of Dickinson's Croxley Mill, Moussec and Franklins

In the last few articles we’ve been looking at where we (and our parents and family) lived. Two weeks ago we looked at the shops we remember, and it looks as if lots of you have strong memories of our High Street and surrounding roads.

I’ve been wanting for a while to look harder at where we worked, as the museum pursues the theme ‘what it was like to live and work around here?’ But it’s proved very difficult, and I thought I’d make this into more of an appeal to readers: what was it like to work in the various (many) places in what’s now Three Rivers? The problem is there are very few images of people actually working – or even of places of work!

Dickinsons Croxley Green - rag sorting, 1930s. Image: Three Rivers Museum

I suppose that’s not too surprising: casual photos in workshops, factories and even shops wouldn’t have been welcome, even if they were to come out well – which won’t have been guaranteed. The only exception I’ve found is from Dickinson’s Croxley Mill, where the company commissioned a fine album of staged shots for a souvenir/marketing album in the 1930s, of which we have a couple of copies in the museum.

So although there are a number (even then, not a huge number) of images of workplaces, pictures of people actually at work aren’t all that common. We’ve included some here of various occupations. But it would be great if readers could fill in some of the gaps, and show us any photos you may have of Three Rivers workplaces, especially with people actually working!

Laying some of the first gas pipes in Mill End, c1928. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul collection

What we’d really like to see is the conditions of work. So women in the rag-sorting operation at Croxley Mill in the 1930s will have been pretty typical – we see an element of what would now be PPE, and it all looks pretty tidy. Was it always? Probably – Dickinson’s was a pretty well-run operation – but it would be good to know. The laying of the gas pipe in 1928 (that late? Really?) shows a strong band of mature men, on a cold and wet day. Nowadays you’d find a much smaller group with a digger, but then it all had to be done by hand, or with a far bigger piece of equipment (and then by hand).

Harry Jacobs at his forge, c1913. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul collection

The picture of Harry Jacobs, the blacksmith and farrier of Church Street, Rickmansworth, dates from 1913. It reminds us of how such small workplaces were actually set up – they’re museum pieces now, recreated for example at the Black Country living museum, but Harry, assisted by his son Arthur, who used to lead the horses (and more, of course), was one of many, many such men whose trade kept both transport and agriculture going in the age of the horse.

Tommy Panther, waterworks steam engine man, c1900. Image: Three Rivers Museum

Tommy Panther belongs to a different age, with steam power influencing most of our lives in about 1900. He came here to the waterworks from Northampton as an engine driver and fitter, and we see him here in about 1910. He later worked for the Urban District Council, but his engine room will have been a completely different place of work, echoing the steam plants at places like Dickinsons and indeed the great Watford printers. But we shouldn’t be deceived: squads of stokers were still throwing coal into boilers to feed these sleek engines, and the boiler rooms will have been rather different until diesel fuel and electric power came in rather later.

Hay making, 1930s. Image: Three Rivers Museum

We shouldn’t forget, either, that much of the population around here lived by agriculture for many years. The hay wagon shown here is seen in the 1930s: but it could have been any time in the previous hundred years, and working in the fields was the reality for thousands of men, and women and children too, with very little to show for it for centuries.

Wrights Transport – truck outside their garage, 1960s. Image: Three Rivers Museum

On the other side of the transport ‘coin’ we have business like Wrights, the garage and haulage company on the site of what’s now the office building as you enter the High Street. What was it like to work there?

Brewery malthouse, as Moussec bottling plant, 1980s. Image: Three Rivers Museum

And, of course, we have much bigger buildings, like the former brewery maltings later taken over by Moussec, and the 1820s silk mill which became Franklins and is now the M&S store and car park. What was it like to work there?

And that’s just round Rickmansworth. All over Three Rivers the same question could be asked, and we’d love to hear readers’ memories of their workplaces. You can contact me at chairman@trmt.org.uk.

Three Rivers Museum is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 2pm to 4pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm.