"When we were children we didn't have much money. We had to make up our own entertainment. My father was handy. But in the summer it was extra special because we lived in this lovely village and behind us was a beautiful wood and we had a lovely brook. And that was how I spent a lot of my childhood apart from in with the animals. I named them all. My father was very cross with me because I spoilt everything that I had, they even followed me to school. We had a lamb which we had, which I was very sad about when it was a year old, had to go back to the farmer because it was a male and he'd become, well lamb, from the butchers.
But I was very creative and we'd make a doll out of pegs, dolly pegs and make faces and dress them up, and when I become fifteen, I went to work in a factory which was called Steinberg's on the estate. And my creativity then was sort of spent on learning how to make garments. That was where I started. We started on an old machine, but Oh, when you got on to the line then and you started to learn how to do the side seams, how to do the pockets. You'd sort of do so many pockets of which there were about five diferent kinds of welts and pipes and flaps and patch pockets. And I used to love to learn. I really enjoyed my job. We ended up making a coat from beginning to end and at the end of my apprenticeship, I was privileged enough to go to James Howells' in Cardiff to show how the garment was made from beginning to end, and also put it on for the people to see the end product. "
Patricia Jones
