Lloyd Routley in His Own Words

In 1994 Lloyd took part in the Lifelines aural history project. He died in 1995 and this tribute was paid to him.

“He was passionate about Buckfastleigh and had been active in the town band and the football team in his younger years. He was adamant that the information you see here was as accurate as he could remember it. He was a fiery character, charming and funny. He will be missed.”

Here are some of Lloyd's descriptions about working at the mill:

“Cause there were two departments and that. There was a spinning department and a mill spinning department …The mill spinning you had from the engines, you used to get long things on the end, you had a little poker thing and they put it on the mules and they would all come forward and back …the spinning then all went on a spool..

Those cheeses (wool spun onto big rollers) were all done for the warping. From the warping they made buscoffs for the weaving ….then it used to go to the weavers… they put that on the back of the machine then they go forward and back…

We used to make a lot of that suits and ladies dresses, what we called woollen for suiting. We used to do the cloth for ladies dresses, all colours…

We earnt £2 a week, years before the war. If you worked yourself up you could get a bit more. We were always paid less down in this part of the country.”

CWS workers late 20s or early 30s. Lloyd is thought to be Back row, 2nd from left.