Salford Docks
Eric Gaunt (right) shares his recollections of working on the Docks with photographer Gordon McWilliams. |
Eric Gaunt - Unloading GrainBorn 1920 Seedley, Salford. Interviewed in 1991 - T098  Click here to listen to this extract in RealAudio format.Those bins, you measure the tonnage in thousands of tons. There might be barley, there might be wheat grain and so on - you know, maize in another - and then certain things happen, and you can't throw grain in a bin and leave it in, because it goes off, it's got to be re-stirred around, and it used to come off ships, it was automatically weighed on these floating gain elevators, down the chutes, masses of conveyor belts, a huge clatter. Well, the men down there never saw daylight, they were working in artificial light, covered in grain dust, and then you get a pile up, something'd go wrong, and then they've got to shout, get somebody to switch off motors - cause we had men in there, one electrician and millwrights, who had to keep all the repairs and things going, then you'd get a pile up of grain, you know, a huge mound. Well these men had to jump in there and clear it all out. There were all kinds of obnoxious jobs. Q: Sounds very unhealthy I always used to think that about the grain elevator. |
| Salford Docks | Office work Unloading grain Getting work Overtime Dock Police |
| Merchant Navy | Knowing the ropes Getting work Foreign seamen The Great Lakes Getting logged |
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