Working Women

In 1919 Ebbw Vale Iron & Coal Co. were to sink another pit.   This was welcomed by men returning from the first World War and eager to find work.   At this time, the GWR (Great Western Railway), engine shed at Aberbeeg maintained thirty six steam engines.   150 men were employed and the engines used 400 tons of coal per week carrying coal and steel to Newport Docks.

The Institute building from across the river Ebbw

1919 also saw the end of WWI and the return to South Wales of “munitionettes,” (girls who had been seconded to working in munition factories in England.)   Many engineering factories had quickly been adapted to munitions during the War period.   A few of these buildings can still be seen on a tour of Coventry.   These girls were allowed to collect 25 shillings a week (£1.25p) as an out-of-work donation by “signing-on.”   Before the War these girls had been housewives or domestic servants, earning, perhaps seven shillings (35p) per week.   Often their work entailed long hours of hard domestic cleaning with very few, if any, domestic appliances to help.   These returning women were reluctant to accept this again, but some had little alternative.

By 1921 only 21 per cent of women were employed but there are no records of how many left Wales.   One argument at that time stated it was wrong to employ women when so many men were out of work.   Women’s place was in the home looking after the children and keeping the menfolk fed, clothed and healthy for work.

In 1921 the Government de-regulated the mines and within twenty-four hours one million miners were unemployed in the UK. 

The 1921 Census reveals that there were 750,000 families in England and Wales in excess of the number of structurally separate dwellings. 

“Social Services” consisted of various organisations such as charitable trusts, individuals  and local government agencies, there was no Welfare State.    Towns were known to ‘adopt’ a poorer area and would provide help by making clothing collections or sending funds.

We can see below the very small percentage of females aged over 14 who were employed in 1931:

            County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil                   13.6% of females over 14 employed
            Rhondda Urban District                                    10.3%
            Glamorgan                                                          14.3%  )  mainly administrative
            Monmouthshire                                                  14.2%  )  counties
      From the Census of GB1931 General Report (HMSO 1950) and Industry Tables (HMSO 1934)

Brickwork detail on the front facade of the building

Considering 80% of jobs for women in 1931 were “Personal Service,” i.e. domestic service, catering, laundry, shop work and clerical, it is clear not many (less than 3%), ventured into the male working domain of manual work or management.

Domestic Service

Unless girls passed for Grammar School, they left aged 14.   Often if girls passed, or were even allowed to sit ‘the scholarship,’ they would still have to leave school, because families needed the extra wage coming in, rather than keep a child in school for another two years. 

At this time in history, domestic skills in women were felt to be essential to raising general living standards and promoting moral reform.   The government offered grants to schools teaching cookery and laundry alongside reading, writing and arithmetic.    In Abertillery there was a Training School where girls were trained in domestic duties such as needlework, cookery and housekeeping, and the South Wales & Monmouthshire Training School of Cookery and Domestic Arts had already opened in Cardiff in 1891.   These were to make girls suitable to become wives or domestic servants.   They were then sent to Cheltenham, Oxford, or even more locally, to Usk to work as servants.    Not all households were large with many rooms.   Even smaller households of one person would employ a servant to lay fires, wash, cook and clean for them.

front facade showing the porch added around 1916

Work, for young women was scarce in the region of Llanhilleth in the early part of the century.   Even shop work was scarce, as priority was given to men unable or unwilling to work in the pit.   This along with a desire to escape a strict upbringing, generated an exodus to the large towns, (and smaller ones).   There girls were going to become servants, ladies’ maids, housemaids, kitchen maids.   It was generally known as “going into service.”    The trauma of home sickness and the lack of familiar surroundings was soon overtaken by the enjoyment of their new found independence and freedom.   At home, often they would have strict rules of behaviour inflicted by parents, but in London they were free to walk in the park with a boy or go to the cinema, even read novels by Elinor Glyn.   She was a pioneer of mass-market women's erotic fiction, even though it would be quite tame for modern tastes.

There is no way of knowing how many Llanhilleth people were killed during WWI.   Although no bombs fell directly on the village, many enlisted men were killed and possibly many women working in London and other major towns and cities.

Not until the 1930s did the servant class drop below 1,000,000 in the UK.

Outside the lower ground floor