“If you was that side of the road, you know , where the shops are, along the front at Wolverton, course you know when the whistle went you had to be in, and they slammed the doors before the whistle had finished blowing didn’t they, always, the doors of the gates at the Works.

But if you was the other side of the road and the column of brigade, which would be 4,000 troops, a brigade come along and you were that side of the road and the first part of the column had gone by, you couldn’t get across that road you know. They wouldn’t let you across, not in between one battalion and the next, although there was space, and the Colonel of each Regiment always had horseback, you see, rode horse and the infantry marched behind. Captain always horseback and if he see anybody try to walk across that road in between the two companies he’d lean over with his whip and knock you back. Yeah you were locked out then for a quarter of an hour at the Works. Had to lose quarter of an hour!