Resourceful Thurrock
We've always been good at recycling. There's scarcely a patch of land only been used once. We won't let anything go to waste.
Bata shoeboxes were made of waste card from a cereal box manufacture at Thames Board Mill. Even the offcuts of shoe leather, he had cut into circles, little circles of leather. And he sold those to mattress makers, as washers to hold the mattresses together at the springs. You might have slept on the offcuts of Bata shoes, and never known it.
Every corner had a pig bin. All the waste food went in there. The farmers used to come round, empty the bins and put them back. Of course those of us who had a pig of our own in the garden would try to get to the pig bins first in the mornings, before they came down from the farms.
As kids we was the same. We'd go running after the rag and bone man calling, "Got any old rags? We want to catch goldfish." When I was about nine or ten, I used to knock round the doors for bottles. Kids will never do that now. We used to do that on our three-wheeled bikes. Haha we'd even go round the back of the pub, where they chucked all the bottles out. We'd pick a bunch up and run to the other door. They'd say, "How many bottles have you got to sell?", and give us the money back on their own bottles.
From stories told at Bulphan Parish Room, Bata Heritage Centre, Orsett Knit And Natter and Aveley History Society.
Bata shoeboxes were made of waste card from a cereal box manufacture at Thames Board Mill. Even the offcuts of shoe leather, he had cut into circles, little circles of leather. And he sold those to mattress makers, as washers to hold the mattresses together at the springs. You might have slept on the offcuts of Bata shoes, and never known it.
Every corner had a pig bin. All the waste food went in there. The farmers used to come round, empty the bins and put them back. Of course those of us who had a pig of our own in the garden would try to get to the pig bins first in the mornings, before they came down from the farms.
As kids we was the same. We'd go running after the rag and bone man calling, "Got any old rags? We want to catch goldfish." When I was about nine or ten, I used to knock round the doors for bottles. Kids will never do that now. We used to do that on our three-wheeled bikes. Haha we'd even go round the back of the pub, where they chucked all the bottles out. We'd pick a bunch up and run to the other door. They'd say, "How many bottles have you got to sell?", and give us the money back on their own bottles.
From stories told at Bulphan Parish Room, Bata Heritage Centre, Orsett Knit And Natter and Aveley History Society.
