Age Concern Dorchester - Dorset's Living Memories

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Rationing to Reception!

Peggy Voss writes ...

I remained at school until I was 14 years old, in 1942. On leaving school my first job was in the Chain Library in Dorchester where I worked for 6 months and earned ten shillings a week.

 My Uncle Arthur ran the Durngate Street butcher's shop and he wanted me to work in the Cashiers Department at the shop, so I left the library job and started in the butcher's shop. I used to write out all the orders in a book - there were no calculators or computers in those days.

This was in the days of rationing, during the war, and I remember that a person was given a meat ration of 8d per week which would buy one chop. Families could pool their 8d meat rations and were then able to buy a joint once a week.

I remember that, if people had not come into town to collect their meat, then on Saturdays we would take their orders down to the Council Yard to catch Mr Pitcher's bus. The meat was wrapped up in brown paper and tied with string and an address was written on every parcel. The cost of delivery was 4d and Mr Pitcher delivered in the Litton Cheney and Long Bredy area. Mr Pitcher's bus was the only means of transport for people living out of town in those days - people didn't have cars.

With the closing of the butcher's in Durngate Street I moved on to work at James Foot in South Street and was employed there for 5 years. In January and February each year we used to bag up seeds from broad beans and peas. We had two sacks and would measure out the seeds using pint and half-pint pots as measures.

In 1955 I felt it was time to do something different and I went to work for Dorset Farmers in High East Street. Again I was employed in the AccountsvDepartment writing in hand ledgers. Then accounting machines started coming in and in 1961, with a new Managing Director, the business changed its name to South Western Farmers.workingPVSouthWesternFarmers1960s

On one of my birthdays - I was in my 30s by now -  I came into work to find a box in my desk drawer. Inside I found a hearing aid, some foundation cream, shoe dye (to blacken my hair) and a bath cube (to cure fallen arches). Everyone thought this was a great joke and I hadto laugh myself.

I stayed in this post for 15 years and then I applied for the receptionist's job, was successful, and remained in this job for about 6years. All in all I worked for South Western Farmers for 29 years. The picture on the right show the girls from the Accounts Department in the 1960's.

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