Iva’s Story

Further Info

This story was made by members of the Malcolm X Elders Forum (based at the Malcolm X centre in St Pauls) working with staff from the Museum of Bristol and Watershed.

The participants, many of whom had moved from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s, wrote the stories of their younger lives, which were recorded, and edited into short films by Paddy Uglow, using participants’ photos and other photographs (used under Creative Commons license).

Other project workers were Ruth Jacobs, Sarwat Siddiqui, Jackie Winchester and Aikaterini Gegisian. The project was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

Iva’s story

On the 14th of January 1962 I [????] from sunny Jamaica, and come straight to Bristol from Victoria Station. My husband to be lived in Bristol and I came to be with him.

It was very cold at that time. Icicles were hanging off the houses - they looked like crystals. I hadn’t seen ice before and didn’t realise that it was slippery and you could fall over on it.

Although I read in a book about what to expect in England, it didn’t tell me about the ice and the snow – that you could falls over them. It told me I would need a coat - I didn’t know what that was! I said “I’m not wearing that!” when it was presented to me by my fiancée. But I have to wear that heavy overcoat and silk scarf over my head just to keep warm.

At the time I was living in Richmond Road, Montpelier. It was in the attic of a tall house – very cold. I was presented with a paraffin heater to keep us warm, and we had to go three floors down to get to the kitchen and bathroom.

In the meantime I was looking for work. I was looking for work in the office but I couldn’t find it. I wrote letters and went for several interviews, but their attitude was different when I presented on the door, when they saw you at the interview. At the end I got a job at Thomas Boag sack factory. I repaired sacks that were used to collect newspapers and cardboard to recycle. It was a horrible place to work. I worked on sacks to hold animal feed, sometimes there was still animal feed in them. Dust would come off all over your clothes and hair. I had to stay at that job or the labour exchange would stop my benefits. I was there for six months. I left to have my first child in January of 1963.

The next job I got after that: Tallon pen factory on Feeder Road - it was hard work and difficult to get to. I did shift work for about 9 months. My sister and I used to childmind for each other.

During this time, I had four children, still working in the meantime in several places. In the 70s, I had a gap of five years to look after the children.

In 1974 I went to work as an auxillary nurse in Frenchay hospital - working on care of the elderly, and I stayed there for 24 years until I retired in 1997.

In the 90s I took my daughter to first aid with St John Ambulance. I end up doing the course myself and then join afterward. I’m still doing voluntary work with them now.

That’s the end of my story.

Credits

Dust picture created by Arbron, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Ice Crystals picture created by EclecticBlog, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Job applications picture created by Paddy Uglow, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Pencils picture created by aaron13251, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Richmond road picture created by Sarwat Siddiqui, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Sack factory picture created by indi.ca, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Sewing machine picture created by sabrina’s stash, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.