A new book tells the history of Rowntree’s through the eyes of women who worked there. MAXINE GORDON meets the ‘Sweethearts’ of York

MADGE BURROW will never forget her first day at Rowntree’s – the dentist removed two of her back teeth.

She was 14 and after a series of tests, including sorting out shapes and different colours, was deemed suitable for employment. There was one proviso: she had to pass a medical, which included a dental check-up.

It was 1932 and her first trip to the dentist. She was frightened, so the dentist asked if any of her family worked in the factory. Madge nodded – she was the 11th member of her clan to land a job at Rowntree’s; her father, three brothers and six sisters were all on the payroll.

“I’ll send word for one of your sisters to come and sit with you,” said the dentist.

Madge’s memories are retold in a new book about life at Rowntree’s, written by Lynn Russell and Neil Hanson. The Sweethearts (Harper Collins, £6.99) documents life at the York cocoa works from the 1930s through to the 1980s, focusing on the tales of Madge and other local women.

Speaking at the book launch at York St John University, Neil said: “Their stories are truly inspiring.

“They were part of an era when although they had the vote, women were still not in control of their finances. They almost disappeared when they got married – even in a company as enlightened as Rowntree’s, women had to give up full-time work when they married.” That rule didn’t change until 1966.

He added: “They all spoke fondly of Rowntree’s. It gave them a sense of worth and self reliance and a set of skills which put them in control of their own money and their own lives.”

• Madge Burrow

MADGE is in her 95th year and spent 39 of them working at Rowntree’s.

She was left-handed and deemed not suitable for piping; instead she put orange chocolates into fillings on a conveyor belt. “Your hands were going ten to the dozen,” she recalls. “You hadn’t time to wipe your nose! They told us: ‘imagine you are playing the piano’.”

One of her highlights was making a casket for Queen Mary when she visited the factory in the 1930s.

• Florence Davies

LIKE Madge, Florence was 14 when she started work at Rowntree’s. It was 1937 and she made up cardboard boxes for the chocolates until the war broke out and the factory became a munitions plant. Florence, 89, remains proud of her war effort which involved waterproofing fuses and transporting heavy bags of detonators.

“We didn’t realise they were dangerous at the time!” she said.

Like many workers, Florence took in washing for soldiers. Unbeknown to her, her mother invited the soldier to come for tea. He was called Arthur. “He was handsome and very nice,” recalled Florence. After the war, Florence and Arthur married and had three children.

• Eileen Kelly

EILEEN, 78, joined Rowntree’s at the age of 16, working in the office, which paid the best wages in the city (around the equivalent of £200 a week; not bad for a young girl). She returned part time after having her children, moving to packing on the factory floor. In the 1980s, she returned as a cleaner.

In the 1960s, she was a young divorced mother with two small boys and her wages from Rowntree’s were a lifeline. “I had two boys to bring up. I had to work. I had no choice.” She had two more children with her second husband, and worked nights to fit in with childcare. “My husband worked days and met me at the doorway as I went out to work on an evening,” she says.

The factory floor was a lively place to work. “We used to chat to each other and they played records in the office. I made great friends.”

• Dorothy Pipes

DOROTHY’S time at Rowntree’s has been captured for posterity in a picture taken in the mid-1950s, showing her marking lines in blocks of Turkish Delight.

“I loved it; they were very happy times,” says Dorothy, 76.

She began work in the ‘nut room’ sorting out different nuts and skinning almonds.

A lingering memory is walking past the fresh fruit every day, destined for the ‘gum block’. “The smell of fruit when I went to work in the morning was wonderful, they had every kind of fruit you could think of there, ready for the Fruit Gums and Pastilles being made.”

• Maureen Hearfield

MAUREEN started at Rowntree’s on her 15th birthday. “It was the longest day of my life,” recalls the 69-year-old. “I came from the country, Seaton Ross, and didn’t know anyone.”

Assigned to fill Smarties tubes, she recalls being all fingers and thumbs and being drowned by the white overall and turban she had to wear.

The hours were long too: “We worked really long hours, from 7.30 in the morning to 5.30 at night; 44 hours a week. It was hard work.”

She was distraught to lose her first wage packet, but some kind soul later handed it in – two pounds, seventeen shillings and sixpence (about £44 today).