Photo: Staff photo book with a picture of some of the secretaries 1960s

Description

Iorwerth worked at Cookes Explosives Ltd for 46 years, starting at the age of 14. He didn't have an interview, just went down to ask for a job. At that time, the new Labour Party had come to power and they established a rule that young workers finish their work half an hour before the older workers, so Iorwerth could leave work at 4:30. There was quite a lot of young workers in Cookes as many people went there after finishing at the village school. The boys had to be 16 and the girls 18 before they could work with explosives. Iorwerth did a number of jobs in Cookes during the years he was there, starting with bags - 'paper shells - into which the explosives went. The bags then went to the girls in the packing to be filled with explosives. After reaching 16, he was working in the huts with other women and men, not with explosive itself but with bags. Men went round to every house with bags and collected them after they were filled. He moved to other jobs in the factory and ended up as transport manager, monitoring the transport of explosives to mines all over the country and often having to defuse them when they'd become unsafe. He married one of the girls in the 'cwts,' Mary.

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