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Rotherham & Sons workshop rules 1864
On 30 November 1923 the Coventry Herald printed extracts of a speech given by the current head of Rotherham & Sons, in which he described a set of rules in force at his factory almost 60 years before:
Not many years ago an old printed notice turned up at Rotherham's of shop rules. This notice we have now had framed, and it is kept as a record of old shop customs. The date of it is 1864, and there seems some little doubt whether the rules were framed by the firm or by the men working in the shop -- (laughter) -- but there seems little doubt but that the fines were at the end of each week divided amongst the men working in the shop, who then went out and drank them.
Rule 1.-- That any person coming to this shop without a clean
apron on Mondays and Thursdays will be fined threepence.
Rule 2. -- Any person coming without being shaved on Mondays will
be fined two-pence.
Rule 3.-- Any person leaving the name mark out of its place for
more than 10 minutes will be fined fourpence.
Rule 4. -- Any person leaving rounds out of place will be fined
a half-penny.
Rule 5. -- Any person leaving the soldering gas on more than one
inch will be fined one penny.
Rule 6. -- Any person throwing will be fined one penny for each
offence.
Rule 7. -- All disputes to be settled by a majority of the men
in the shop.
Jan. 5th, 1864.
This seems to have been a most sensible way of going on, and I only wish that some shops that I know would frame rules and fines on these lines and see that they are observed.
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