CHERRY Fathers has fond memories of her two years working at an Oxfordshire glove factory.

She recalls: “I made the fingers and sewed them together. It was a wonderful, happy place.”

Mrs Fathers, whose maiden name was Fidgett, was prompted to write in after seeing the picture of the ‘glove factory girls’ on a day trip to Southend-on-Sea on June 16, 1951 (Memory Lane, January 10).

They worked at Bolton’s glove factory in Abingdon, near St Helen’s Church, while Mrs Fathers, of Gainsborough Green, Abingdon, worked at a factory at Didcot.

She writes: “I left Didcot Girls’ School in 1957 and the next week, I was working at the glove factory.

“We made mainly leather gloves, although some were made of other material.

“I stayed until 1959, when I went to work at Didcot Ordnance Depot.”

She has forgotten the name of the factory, but has sent in this picture of her and some of her colleagues at work.

Glove-making was a common trade in Oxfordshire for many years, with Woodstock being one of the UK centres of the industry. Records show that in 1850, firms in the town employed 100 men and 1,500 women, who produced 6,000 pairs of gloves per week.

One reason why gloving flourished in Woodstock was the arrival of the Kidlington-Woodstock railway, which reduced transport costs.

Some employees worked in factories, while others, mainly women, worked from home.

Reader Jenny Holloway, of Botley, recalls that her Auntie Win (Winifred Brett) was an outworker for a glove manufacturer.

“I remember not only the smell of leather at her home at Marston, but seeing the gloves all laid out.”