A new book looks at the life of workers in Southampton past. Keith Hamilton reports...

IT WAS a daily ritual for employees in most Southampton workshops and factories in the post-war years that over the loudspeaker systems came Music While You Work and Workers' Playtime.

The popular wireless programmes were big favourites during the 1950s and early 1960s and were designed by the BBC to make, perhaps, boring jobs a little bit more enjoyable.

These days are recalled in the book More Memories of Southampton, which takes a nostalgic look back at the city.

The book is packed with scores of photographs and memories of earlier times in Southampton and features chapters on transport, aerial scenes of the town, as it was then, special events such as carnivals and military parades and royal visits, together with fascinating images of street scenes.

One section of the book takes a look at the many women who made up most of the workforce in Southampton's laundries, which included the Una Star in Vincent Avenue, Shirley, Portswood- based Ameys, the Redcote Convent in Bitterne and Liners and Mafeking, both of Freemantle. There was even one owned by Mr Chu Wong in Onslow Road.

They provided a service, not just to the ships that came and went in the docks together with hotels and catering trade, but to the general public as well

Automatic washing machines were not the kitchen fixtures they are today and the high street laundromat had still to make an impact.

"Housewives from the poorer end of town did their own washing, scrubbing away in the kitchen sink or pounding like mad with the dolly and tub, followed by a hectic bout of mangling and pegging out in the backyard,'' says the book.

"Those with a few bob to spare used the services of the laundry. Sheets and shirts came back from there bright, clean and neatly pressed.''

Half way through the morning on the factory floor, the wireless was tuned in and Music While You Work drifted out of the loudspeakers.

Later, crooner Dennis Lotis, comedian Cyril Fletcher and bird impressionist Percy Edwards could be among the stars heard at lunchtime.

Southampton factories of Mullard's and AC-Delco also employed a great number of women producing automotive parts after the war.

"Kept busy providing essential supplies for the war effort, these companies and their competitors were hard at it in peacetime as the nation replaced stocks worn out from over use or suffering from neglect,'' records the book.

"The women on the production line had given vital support to the country's needs as they helped keep the war machine rolling.''

More Memories of Southampton is published by True North Books and sponsored by Griffon Hovercraft, T Clark and Son, Peter Green, RH Hammond, Meachers Group Holdings and WT Sibley.