The Richardson family has been well known at East Tilbury for many years - long before British Bata ever thought of building its factory there. Betty Richardson (right), one of the four members of the family employed by the Company, once worked on the St Clere's Farm on which the factory now stands and her sister Molly still lives in one of the St Clere's Cottages. Betty's husband is still a farm worker as is Molly's husband.
Betty is a checker in the rubber factory, and has a son, a daughter, and a sister employed by the Company. Until a month ago, a daughter-in-law also worked for British Bata. When he has finished his service in the Royal Air Force, another son, who worked in the leather factory, will return.
Before the factory was built, Betty worked for Farmer W Wilson, of St Clere's Hall, and it is on the farm that British Bata now stands.

She lived in a cottage on the farm, and later moved to one of the three St Clere's Cottages near East Tilbury Station which formed part of the farm. Now she lives in a house in the village.
Betty checks casuals in Dept 341 sewing section. She started seven years ago and her first job was to trim zips. She rapidly gained an extensive knowledge of rubber shoemaking, passing through several conveyor operations. Before she was transferred to her present department, in which she is a shareholder, she checked Sportright boots on the same floor.
"I am very happy here," Betty told Bata Record, "My workmates are a grand crowd, and I could not wish for a better forewoman to work for. I like the work and everything about the factory."
When she is not working, Betty always finds something to do. She is a clever needlewoman and knitter and makes relays of clothes for the family, and is fond of reading. Her favourite relaxation is listening to music - "tuneful light music and popular classics," she says. "I don't like jazz."
Her husband is an excavator driver for Farmer Wilson, by whom the husband of her sister, Molly, has been employed for 30 years.

A cheerful companion and capable worker, Philip has been a Bataman for eight years, coming after leaving school. His National Service - in the Army - did nothing to modify his enjoyment of the work.
Like other Richardsons, he is far from idle, and, as readers of the Record will remember, an article was published about him in the series on hobbies, two months ago.
His wife Brenda was in the hosiery department until a month back. She came originally on him recommending British Bata as a worth-while firm for which to work.

Molly (left). perforating eyelets in Dept 325, still lives in one of the cottages near the station, and has been a Batawoman for four years.
"I wanted to come to British Bata because it was near home, and because several of my friends worked there," she said. "And I am very glad I did, because I made new friends, as well as meeting the old ones, and I learned to do interesting work."
She told Bata Record her husband helped to carry the first iron girders used in the construction of the factory.
Betty's son Philip (below) is a popular young worker on the conveyor in Dept 323, where he trims backstrips on wellingtons. "I think I know something about wellingtons," he said, "because I have done most of the conveyor jobs in the manufacture of them. But I also know that there is always something to learn, and I am very interested in my work."

Youngest working member of the Richardson family is a young lady with definite ideas on life - 16 year old Maureen (left), a linker in the hosiery department, dark, lively, and interested in her work.
She came because her mother was so happy in the factory.
"The girls here are a grand lot of companions," she said, " and , if you really interest yourself in it, the work is far from difficult."
Always interested in literature and English, Maureen writes short stories, and exchanges them with a pen-friend in Kentucky, U.S.A. "They are quite short," she explained "about two pages. I make up most of the characters, but the humorous ones are sometimes drawn from people I see and meet."