The Singer Story: Made in Clydebank
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00:00This is the story of one of the world's best-selling products and the town it helped to create.
00:11The arrival of a factory transformed a sleepy village by the Clyde into an industrial powerhouse.
00:17I don't think you realise the enormity.
00:20It was probably about a mile to a mile and a half from one end to another.
00:25The village grew into a town called Clyde Bank with a strong community in it.
00:31There's something about just being a bankie. I'm a woman, I'm a this, I'm a that and I'm a bankie.
00:37I had picture houses, dance halls.
00:40It was a whole new landscape.
00:44The factory made a product that the world couldn't get enough of.
00:51The Singer sewing machine.
00:54And that changed the world as we knew it.
00:58One in five households in the world had got a Singer sewing machine.
01:02You would say, oh, I'd like to buy a new Singer and the Singer man would go, well, wouldn't we all, madam, wouldn't we all?
01:11Even today, the sewing machines made in Clyde Bank work hard around the world, keeping the Singer name alive.
01:20Having a sewing machine is going to change my life, big time.
01:24It has associations with my grandmother, my mother.
01:27I always call him my old boy and I love my machine, I really do.
01:32Literally, some of them have lasted a hundred years.
01:49Well, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your champion of the season, the wonderful Mark Jennings!
02:05Yes, hello Glasgow, make some noise!
02:10I'm from not far away from here, I'm from Clyde Bank.
02:14It's quite a bit of fame if you don't know anything about Clyde Bank.
02:16It was bombed by the Germans in World War II.
02:19Walking the streets of Clyde Bank today would be forgiven for thinking the Second World War took place sometime in the last spotlight.
02:33Comedian Mark Jennings has lived in Clyde Bank all his life.
02:38What it means to be a Bankie is there is a sense of belonging in a sense that,
02:43well, we've got this proud history of surviving the Blitz and the Second World War
02:49and then, you know, this proud history of building these ships that, you know, went all around the world
02:54and having the Singer sewing factory that built these, you know, sewing machines that again went all around the world
02:59and just a real sense of pride and important place for the whole world, basically.
03:08So this is where, like, the Singer factory used to be
03:12and this is the Clyde Bank business part now, so it's like call centres and stuff like that
03:17and this is what it's looked like basically the whole time that I've been alive.
03:24Apparently the factory had, like, a big clock and so when the factory got took away, my gran was telling me,
03:29she's like, oh, you know, son, we didn't really have the watches and the phones and all that you've got these days
03:34so we didn't know what time it was.
03:36It was like the idea of these people in Clyde Bank once they took away the clock just walking about like,
03:41oh, do you have any idea of the time now? Is it quarter past three? Is it ten past two? I don't know.
03:54Oh, the clock was massive. The clock was massive. You could see it from miles away.
03:59It set you off on your day and ended your day for you. It was never, ever out of time.
04:05The Singer clock was a huge boot. It was 26 feet in diameter.
04:10It was a massive, great big square tower and it had an enormous face, four faces actually, all the way round.
04:16And it had the Singer name on each side and it was lit up at night.
04:23And great big long hands.
04:25The minute hand was 13 foot 6 long and I think the smaller hand was about 8 foot odd long.
04:33Well, when you were going in in the morning, you were watching that clock like a hawk.
04:37To see if you were getting the right time for your bus and wherever you were going,
04:40if you were going to be in time for the movie and the cinema, it was something special.
04:44That was Singer's and you just thought it was going to be there forever.
04:55Isaac Merritt Singer was the brainchild of an eccentric American inventor, Isaac Singer.
05:04Isaac Merritt Singer was the son of a German immigrant.
05:09He grew up in America, grew up in New York.
05:12He invented the first, what we know as the first practical sewing machine and they called it a sewing engine.
05:22In 1851, he patented his first model and that changed the world as we knew it.
05:32Isaac Merritt Singer was a brilliant showman.
05:35He was very good at selling the sewing machine.
05:37He opened up fantastic big plus showrooms in major cities in America.
05:41He would take it to fairs, circuses and he was very much aware he had to persuade not just manufacturers
05:48to drop the sewing machine but the buying public that machine-sewn goods weren't as good as,
05:52if not better, than hand-sewn goods.
05:57Forever, people had hand-stitched every single item of cloth together.
06:01So along comes this machine which supposedly joins it for you and nobody really believed it.
06:08So they used to put on public shows and you could pay in New York on Broadway 10 cents to go and see this show
06:15and people would be, oh, this is amazing and that's how it all started.
06:23He wasn't the only inventor. In fact, there were about eight or nine really important inventions.
06:29And so in the very early days of the industry, Isaac Singer along with the other owners,
06:34they set up their own businesses and the Singer story began to change in the 1870s.
06:40In the 1870s, several of these leading American companies began to realise
06:44that they could sell their sewing machines overseas
06:47and the most obvious market to go and experiment in was the United Kingdom.
07:03Singer's an American firm and they decide to come and locate in Scotland.
07:07The manager who was based in America who made that decision was actually Scottish
07:13and he'd migrated there in the first place.
07:15So they first set up shop in Glasgow in a location near Queen Street Station right in the city centre
07:22and they chose Glasgow because at that period you've got lots of migrant workers in the city,
07:27so a kind of cheap labour force.
07:30At first, the Glasgow factory assembled the machines with parts imported from the United States.
07:37Though they made over a thousand sewing machines a week, the factory couldn't keep up with the growing demand.
07:44It was clear they needed to move to a bigger place.
07:51Singer sent out men to look all over Europe and find a place to build the perfect factory
07:58and they came across this lovely little place in Kilbowie that had everything.
08:03It had the woods, it had the steel, it had the rails, it had the Great River Clyde.
08:09It had everything they needed at that one spot.
08:17Construction of the factory started in 1882 and was completed in two years.
08:23When it opened, the new Singer Sewing Machine Factory was a state-of-the-art facility,
08:29largest of its kind in the world.
08:33And in pride of place was that iconic clock tower that could be seen for miles.
08:39There's a brilliant map of 1861 and all that's in there is a train line, a canal and the edge of the Clyde.
08:46And then if you look at the map in about 1891,
08:48you can see this warren of streets and this enormous factory right in the middle of it.
08:53It literally changed the geography of the whole place.
08:59With John Brown's shipyards already employing a huge number of people in the area,
09:05the new Singer factory attracted thousands more.
09:10The deluge of industry had inadvertently created a brand new town.
09:15That came to be known as Clydebank.
09:19By 1906, I believe, there was 26,000 people in Clydebank.
09:23So Singer's factory was the catalyst for the community.
09:27They kind of created almost that local economy.
09:38Clydebank's got a fish and chip shop that's actually a boat.
09:41Clydebank's got a fish and chip shop that's actually a boat.
09:44And on this boat, it's got a sign that says,
09:47Fish and Chip Shop of the Year.
09:50And then in much tiny writing below it says,
09:52Runner Up.
09:551997.
10:02You kind of need to be funny being from somewhere like here.
10:05You either need to be funny or be able to fight or be good at football.
10:08So, you know, I wasn't any of the other two.
10:10So, you know, I was always trying to just make jokes and stuff to get by.
10:15Where you're from's a big part of comedy,
10:17and Clydebank's definitely something that influenced me and where I go.
10:22Bank is quite distinct from the Glaswegian,
10:27despite the nearness of one another.
10:31When you go on holidays, you know yourself.
10:33People say, you come from Scotland, aye?
10:35Glasgow.
10:36You say, no, Clydebank.
10:37Yeah, you're only about six miles away from that.
10:39But you always name the place you're born in.
10:43Well, I was born in Clydebank in 1929.
10:47And the rest of my life, I've been a bankie.
10:51I would consider myself definitely a bankie.
10:53As if it's part of you, you know.
10:55I'm a woman, I'm a this, I'm a that, and I'm a bankie.
10:59The bankie character has been moulded by this product.
11:03I'm rather proud of it.
11:10So this is right next to Singer's train station,
11:12which is really the only kind of remnants of the Singer factory even being here.
11:16Just the fact that the train station's called Singer.
11:18And if you're not from Clydebank, you probably don't even know why it's called Singer.
11:21You'd just be like, oh, is this where Marty Pellow used to live or whatever?
11:24But, anyway, it's a very nice place.
11:27But, yeah, that's the only real thing that's left to show the history of the factory.
11:36One of the things about the Singer station was,
11:39even the station platform was chock-a-block.
11:45When you actually got on the train in the morning,
11:47the carriages were actually stuffed with people.
11:51It was quite an experience because there were hundreds droving into the factory.
11:56Singer employed thousands, John Browns employed thousands.
12:00The streets were just dark with people.
12:02It was like a football match coming out or in nowadays, you know.
12:05It was a whole new landscape because you were meeting every day
12:12there were such a lot of different people.
12:16It was 20 minutes to 8, the horn went off, that's when you started work.
12:20So you had to be there by about half seven
12:24because you had all these stairs to come down from Bowie Road.
12:28If you were a minute late, they were taking 15 minutes off your wages.
12:35The Singer factory was from one end to the other.
12:38It was probably about a mile to a mile and a half from one end to another.
12:42It is enormous.
12:44One of the big surprises of the plant at Singer was just how widely spread it was.
12:52Every department had to make different things for the sewing machine.
13:01They didn't just supply the sewing machines,
13:03they supplied everything that went with it from the threads to the attachments.
13:08There was 56 departments at the time.
13:11Each department was numbered.
13:13One was the foundry.
13:15Four department was the hardening.
13:17Five department was the dry milling, I think it was.
13:22And there was other departments where it was so dusty,
13:25all the dust was clogging you, it was like being in a sewer.
13:29It was like being in a sewer.
13:31There was other departments where it was so dusty,
13:34all the dust was clogging you, it was like being in a smog.
13:38You know, you blew your nose.
13:43Sixth department where I was was the wet milling department.
13:47Seventh department was the shuttle.
13:50Very, very dirty jobs.
13:52In 55 department, we just made tiny wee parts for inside the machines.
13:57And your hands at the end up would be all scalps and all mucky,
14:01and that was one of the bad jobs.
14:09To give the machine its signature look,
14:11it was covered in a tough black gloss
14:14and then baked in a process called Japanning.
14:19The machine was then hand-finished with exquisite designs in gold leaf.
14:27It was an important part, no matter what you were doing.
14:30And you were proud to be making a small part
14:34and to know that it was going to be a Singer sewing machine.
14:39And it was going to give somebody so much pleasure
14:42and it was going to be sent all over the world.
14:47Although it was widely revered as a technological marvel,
14:51the sewing machine didn't make it to people's homes straight away.
14:56The sewing machine is synonymous with women and garment manufacture,
15:00but the initial sewing machine that Singer brought out in 1851,
15:03they were not interested in domestic sales,
15:05they were interested in manufacturers.
15:08Isaac looked at the factories
15:10because if you could make, say, a hat or an overcoat
15:14in two days instead of two weeks,
15:16now that's a product you could sell to that factory and they would buy it.
15:20So factories were the first people who bought sewing machines
15:23and they bought them ten machines, 20 machines,
15:27100 machines, 1,000 machines.
15:31Their usefulness went beyond just garment manufacturing.
15:36They could change the shell of the machine,
15:38the size of the machine, the bed of the machine,
15:40so they could actually adapt the machine
15:42to make all sorts of unusual shaped objects,
15:45for making shoes, things like that, gloves.
15:48And they were working this out along with the manufacturers.
15:54At a bookbinding company in Glasgow,
15:57the industrial Singer sewing machines
16:00continue to uphold a centuries-old tradition.
16:04Sewing and bookbinding hasn't changed
16:07since the book started, basically.
16:10Different types of books require different methods.
16:15So we have a Singer sewing machine which side-sews a book,
16:20we have one that sews down the centre of the book,
16:25and we have one that sews pages together to form a sectioned book.
16:31Too small a stitch and the pages become perforated.
16:34Too big a stitch and the pages become loose.
16:37So the Singer is the ideal sewing machine for a book.
16:41The machines haven't developed much.
16:45Obviously the new machines have,
16:48obviously the new machines now are more computerised,
16:52but basically they're all hand-operated, semi-automatic machines.
17:00As well as restoring manuscripts and literary editions
17:04for museums and universities,
17:06the bookbinders work extensively with the Houses of Parliament
17:10and the British Library.
17:12It's a testament to the people who produced
17:16the Singer sewing machines in Highbank
17:18to build and produce such a robust machine
17:21that can still keep going.
17:32The Singer sewing machines produced in the early 20th century
17:36were finally crafted.
17:38Constructed with cast iron and a combination of alloys,
17:42the machines were built to last.
17:45The sewing machine that Singer designed,
17:47it was a really great piece of engineering.
17:50It's in a cast iron shell which is pretty much indestructible.
17:54So it has got this long life.
17:56That was what they were building in the 19th century.
17:59The idea of building in inbuilt obsolescence
18:01wasn't really something that they would have considered.
18:04Literally some of them have lasted 100 years.
18:08There was, however, one snag.
18:11The machines were tremendously expensive.
18:14Sewing machines would have cost a typical worker
18:18at least half a year's salary to be able to pay for.
18:23So they developed an idea that was completely novel
18:28in the mid-1870s.
18:30I've got a great idea.
18:32Why don't we give the customer the machine
18:35and let them pay us back over five years,
18:3710 years, 15 years, 25 years?
18:40That's what enabled people to actually invest in the sewing machine
18:43because they could just pay the small amount a week.
18:45And the first year, the sales went from 5,000 machines
18:49to 25,000 machines.
18:51And every year after that, they were doubling.
18:54And that was a complete game changer.
18:58So higher purchase was invented by the Singer Company
19:01and it changed the Singer Company beyond all recognition.
19:07By 1918, at the end of the First World War,
19:10the Singer sewing machines were so popular
19:12that one in five households in the world
19:16had got a Singer sewing machine.
19:19Singer's innovative higher purchase scheme
19:21and clever marketing made its sewing machine affordable
19:25and accessible to people all over the world.
19:29But they didn't just stop there.
19:31They took the sewing machine right to people's homes.
19:34In the UK, it would go almost to every single house
19:38in the entire country and knock on the door
19:41and ask people if they would like to buy a sewing machine.
19:47They used beautiful women to advertise their products.
19:51They put them in the high street sewing in shop windows
19:54and this attracted the crowds.
19:56So they were very, very good at marketing.
20:00This concentrated effort created an appetite for the Singer brand
20:05and put it ahead of its competitors for decades to come.
20:09Beginning Singer's long reign at the top,
20:12they established factories all over the world
20:15but Singer's Clydebank factory remained its largest in Europe.
20:22You were never bored in Singer's, never.
20:25You were always on your go.
20:27It was just heads down and into your work.
20:31Well, it was a place that was very strict.
20:33You weren't allowed to go away and have a smoke or anything like that,
20:36though they did on the fly.
20:38The toilet was called the tinny
20:41because it had a corrugated iron roof
20:44and that's where some of the folk went to hide from the gaffer
20:49and put in the rollers for the dancing
20:53and some of them had a wee fly puff.
20:57Well, my first job was actually as an office boy
21:00and the first day you were just sort of finding your way about
21:04and some of the places that you visited,
21:07where my sister worked, for instance, it was all females
21:10and all these girls were shouting extremely rude remarks
21:15and then this voice rang out,
21:17that's my wee brother, leave him alone.
21:20He's a virgin and he's going to stay that way,
21:23which caused a great deal of hilarity
21:26but some of these women, honest to goodness,
21:29if you shook hands with them they could crush you to a pulp.
21:35One of the things that I really liked about working in Singer
21:38was the friendships we made.
21:40I'd gone for an interview
21:42and I'd met this girl waiting for an interview as well.
21:46Her name was Maureen.
21:47It was the day of the interview when I met my friend Anna.
21:50It turned out that we got sent up to the same department
21:53and that was us.
21:55We were inseparable.
21:57On my first day we were quite excited
22:00and I had to go to the toilet
22:02and they told us, well, you had to go down to the men's department
22:06where they assembled all the machines.
22:08And when Maureen came back from the toilet,
22:11oh my goodness, you should have seen the state of her.
22:15Absolutely mortified, shaking like a leaf.
22:18So it was my turn to go
22:20and then I realised why she was in the state she was in.
22:25And of course as soon as a female walked down the passageway
22:29towards the toilet, they were all hammered on their benches.
22:32With hammers, spanners, you name it.
22:35Anything they could get hold of.
22:37You've got them both sides of you.
22:43Well, you can imagine, 17 years old,
22:46your face was like a bright red tomato.
22:49But there was no way out
22:51because you had to come back that way as well.
22:53LAUGHS
22:57One of the things that sort of peeved me even back in those days
23:00was there was boys and the men as well.
23:03They were all being paid very much better than I was.
23:06Even then I felt there was a lot of unfairness
23:08and we were always treated as if we were just, you know,
23:11second-class citizens in a way.
23:13And to make it worse, of course, I was a married woman
23:16and there were a lot of people, and I include ladies in this as well,
23:19who thought I had no business to be holding onto a job,
23:22you know, that someone else might be able to get this job
23:25who hadn't a husband to keep her.
23:27And I thought, well, I didn't get married to be kept.
23:30The men, they always get paid more.
23:32Always, always, always, you know.
23:34And the girls weren't happy about that.
23:38They're still arguing about that, 63 years later.
23:45It was an issue that caused one of the biggest controversies
23:49at Singer's factory in Clydebank.
23:52Back in 1911, pushed to the brink by low wages
23:56and the threat of redundancies,
23:58women workers from the polishing department
24:00took a bold step against the management.
24:04They went on strike.
24:06The Singer strike of 1911 is important
24:09because it was the women workers
24:11that sort of stood up against changes that were made.
24:15Redundancies were being made
24:17and the women obviously took objection to this
24:20and they were asking a group of women
24:22to do the job of ten rather than seven people.
24:25You know, saying, no, no, this isn't on.
24:27And it was the women that walked out.
24:29And the following day, the whole factory came out in support
24:32and, you know, obviously the management were not happy about this.
24:38The women's strike of Singer set off a chain of events
24:41that eventually culminated
24:43in the most significant labour movement in Scotland,
24:46known as Red Clydeside.
24:49Red Clydeside is often associated with male activism
24:53around the Clyde and trade union activism
24:56and the rent strikes of 1915 in Govan,
24:59but actually it started in Clydebank in 1911.
25:05Threatened with the prospect of losing their jobs,
25:08the workers were forced to end the strike after a few weeks
25:12and the management made sure none of the women
25:14who had started the strike came back to the factory.
25:19The strike, however, went on to have a lasting legacy
25:23and became a beacon for labour activism in Scotland.
25:27It has become pretty symbolic in Scottish labour history
25:30as an incident of workers just sort of standing up for their rights
25:34and saying, no, we're not going to take the cost-cutting measures.
25:38The women's strike of 1911 was also instrumental
25:42in creating better working conditions at the Clydebank factory.
25:47That's when Singer bring in provision of social clubs,
25:51sports clubs, the hockey club, the football club,
25:54all of those sorts of facilities that are provided,
25:57which I guess are quite paternalistic,
25:59basically to placate the workers, to keep them happy,
26:02so there'll be no more strike action
26:04if you feel like you're being looked after.
26:09There was everything, like they had football teams,
26:12tennis, bus runs, you name it, and they had it.
26:16And, of course, they had the annual gala.
26:24The Singer Gala Day was the highlight of the factory's social calendar.
26:29One year, many years ago,
26:31Dorothy Lamour, who was a famous film star, came,
26:34and she came and opened the sports in the gala for us at Singer,
26:39which was quite a turnout in the town,
26:41because at that point in time,
26:43she was very famous in films with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
26:49They had a lovely big playing field, and there were races of all sorts.
26:53It was like a sports day in gala.
26:57High jumping and athletics.
27:01And they used to have a queen.
27:05And she always had sort of almost like bridesmaids, you know,
27:10like her attendants, and then she had an entourage as well,
27:13and all these girls had beautiful dresses made.
27:16It was long dresses, three-quarter length,
27:18but it was very glamorous, and it was a lot of fun.
27:22It was long dresses, three-quarter length,
27:24but it was very glamorous, and lovely flowers.
27:27It was like a rainbow.
27:31And then it was time for the queen to be crowned,
27:34which was a great big thing in Clydebank.
27:36I think the whole of Clydebank were there.
27:39The Singer queen was selected by her beauty,
27:43and then all the other ones that didn't get chosen as queen,
27:48they were her attendants.
27:52I was fortunate enough to be picked,
27:55and I was a maid of honour,
27:57and I absolutely chuffed the bits with myself.
28:01And I know all my relatives from Glasgow were all through.
28:05Years I thought I was the queen, but they were all so proud, you know.
28:10It was just a very, very happy day, you know.
28:23CLOCK CHIMES
28:29Clydebank had endured catastrophic destruction during the Blitz
28:34and was slowly getting back on its feet.
28:40At Singer's factory, machine manufacturing had been mothballed
28:44during the war to make munitions,
28:46so when the production line started back up,
28:49it could barely sustain the backlog of orders.
28:53You would say, oh, I'd like to buy a new Singer,
28:56and the Singer man would go, well, wouldn't we all, madam, wouldn't we all?
29:01Singer's machines went worldwide, everywhere.
29:05In fact, you used to go down, if you went into the shipping shed down there,
29:08you would see the boxes with the names on it.
29:11Karachi, India, Turkey, Africa.
29:16WHIRRING
29:19Singer's universal appeal was because of its reputation
29:22as a reliable, quality sewing machine.
29:26The machines they were making, certainly in the early 20th century,
29:29beautifully engineered machines, you could get all the parts,
29:32you could service it, and manufacturers like using Singer machines,
29:35especially if they do very high-quality products,
29:38because Singer make a really nice stitch,
29:40and they still like that quality of stitch.
29:46Singer's distinctive stitch
29:48earned it a devoted following among distinguished heritage tailors.
29:53In London's Savile Row,
29:55that loyalty has been passed down to a new generation.
29:59Every single individual on this street
30:02has learnt their craft to the perfection.
30:06I mean, we've learnt from people that have done it for, you know, decades.
30:12WHIRRING
30:14The reason why we use the machine
30:16is because it's kind of a strong, straight stitch.
30:19They're quick, they're efficient, they're clean and they're strong.
30:23My Singer sewing machine was originally my tutor Stefano's.
30:28He was doing it for 50 years,
30:30which means, really, he was passing on 50 years of skill to me.
30:37I was always fascinated by clothes at a young age.
30:41My dad was quite stylish, he had a few bespoke suits.
30:46I didn't really feel I could really say I was a tailor until I did five years.
30:52So that was a certain point in my career I thought,
30:55oh, yeah, I like the way my coat looks now.
30:58Not perfect, but I liked it.
31:01I love my machine, I really do.
31:03I know it sounds really silly, but I hate using other machines.
31:09He's really, really slow and, you know, there's so much control with him.
31:16Some machines whizz off like a little puppy or something,
31:20but mine's like an old man, I always call him my old boy
31:23and I do actually talk to him sometimes as well.
31:27I do actually talk to him sometimes as well,
31:30if he's not doing what I want, so that's my old boy.
31:36I love how he looks, I love how he works
31:39and I think I just always want Singers around my life.
31:52Clydebank was a thriving industrial powerhouse in the 1950s.
31:58It had come a long way from its origins as a small village by the Clyde.
32:05Singer Manufacturing Company and the world-renowned John Brown's Shipyard
32:10collectively employed tens of thousands of people.
32:14The town flourished on the coattails of their success.
32:18You tell me any other town in Scotland where you will find two golf courses,
32:23seven municipal bowling greens,
32:26three public libraries, all that kind of thing,
32:29you'll find it in Clydebank and nowhere else in Scotland, I assure you.
32:33Clydebank was buzzing, buzzing.
32:36Oh, well, it was great.
32:38There was always a wee dance on a Saturday night
32:40and sometimes my father would take me to the pictures, the La Scala.
32:47Picture houses, dance halls, anything you wanted,
32:51you had that in Clydebank.
32:53It was a fab place to stay.
32:57And the pubs. I think the pubs did a roaring trade.
33:04Singer's success was largely built on the loyalty of its female customers.
33:09The company had invested heavily over the years to nurture this relationship.
33:15From the moment it was first introduced,
33:17Singer knew that to get sewing machines into people's homes
33:21it had to appeal to the lady of the house.
33:24When they started to focus on domestic sales,
33:26they used to use women to demonstrate the sewing machine
33:29because that was their thinking, it's so easy, a woman can use it.
33:32Because the idea of a woman using a machine
33:34or taking a machine into the house was just unheard of.
33:40Singer deployed various tactics,
33:42initially marketing the sewing machine as a time-saving device
33:46that would enable the woman to earn money,
33:48making it attractive to thousands of working-class families.
33:52We know from diaries that were kept by housewives in the United States
33:57in the 1860s and 1870s,
33:59they would be spending the equivalent of two days a week
34:02on clothes manufacturing and clothes repair,
34:04hand stitching and other associated tasks.
34:07That's a lot of time.
34:09The sewing machine saved about 90% of that stitching time.
34:14For the first time, you not only could sew for yourself,
34:19but you could make your next-door neighbour's dress and charge her.
34:23So all of a sudden, the woman in the household could be earning her own money
34:27and that was instrumental, really, in changing society.
34:32Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is Walter O'Keefe
34:34turning the microphone over to the cat. Take it away, kitty.
34:38Oh, John, I'm so discouraged.
34:40How can I ask anybody to this house the way the furniture looks?
34:43Well, it is pretty awful,
34:45but I don't suppose we could buy much with our money.
34:48Not unless a miracle happens.
34:50Ah, there's the miracle.
34:52Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, answer that doorbell.
34:55But it's the singer man.
34:57For the women who didn't know how to sew,
35:00Singer offered them the opportunity to learn
35:02at one of its many sewing centers.
35:04It is estimated that by 1951,
35:07over 400,000 women were taught sewing at these centers.
35:12Just a few simple lessons on the sewing machine
35:14and her house will look so attractive
35:16they'll probably sell it at a profit.
35:20Here he is in person. It's the singer man.
35:23Over the years, Singer fashioned itself
35:26as the neighbourhood-friendly brand
35:28that was there to help the women who didn't know how to sew.
35:31Everybody knew there was a Singer shop on High Street
35:34and people would go and buy it for their 21st or their wedding present.
35:37The granny that used them,
35:39she's still alive to say,
35:41this is the machine I made your christening gown on.
35:44Never, ever underestimate nostalgia.
35:47It's a powerful thing.
35:55Keeping that nostalgia alive,
35:57Singer was able to help the women
36:00Keeping that nostalgia alive
36:02is textile artist Helen Poremba,
36:05who uses her traditional Singer sewing machines
36:08for more contemporary work.
36:11I started sewing probably as a very young child
36:14with my grandmother on her old treadle-sewn machine
36:17and had my own hand-cranked Singer when I was 8, I think it was.
36:25The sense of nostalgia of the Singer sewing machine
36:28is what I learnt.
36:30It has associations with my grandmother, my mother.
36:35Helen creates botanical designs
36:37using a technique called free-motion embroidery.
36:43I always like to work from the plant initially
36:46because I'm looking for shapes
36:48that I can then transfer to fabric to actually cut out.
36:52I find the pattern of the way plants grow
36:56really lend themselves to creating patterns in textile.
37:02Once the drawing is complete,
37:04Helen uses the pattern to cut the shapes from the fabric.
37:09I build a piece up in layers.
37:11I don't have a place for one before the other ones are completed,
37:15so I never know before it's done really what it's going to look like.
37:20I have, I think, currently 11 machines,
37:24from 1881 through to the 1960s.
37:29All the ones I have were made in Clydebank.
37:33So the one I use all the time is the 201K.
37:36This has a very fast stitch,
37:38which means when I'm using it to draw with,
37:41it's almost like the speed of using a pencil or a pen on paper.
37:45It's very smooth.
37:46It can just keep going forever and ever without a hitch.
37:50I like the process of actually moving the fabric.
37:53Suppose it's like drawing where you hold a pencil still
37:57and somebody, you know, you would move the paper.
38:00It can adapt itself in all sorts of different ways as an artist's tool.
38:09Singer's slogan was to have a sewing machine in every home,
38:13and he just about did that.
38:15And I think everybody has that same kind of memory of,
38:18oh yes, you know, my granny had one or whatever.
38:21There's one in the cupboard still.
38:24It will just keep going forever.
38:45For decades, Singer's relentless marketing
38:48and huge high street presence had kept competitors at bay.
38:53But as the Japanese and German industries recovered after the war,
38:57it became apparent their dominance was under threat.
39:02Singer were the only people making sewing machines
39:05and they had a monopoly on the market,
39:08so they didn't really have to worry about improving things.
39:12However, once the Japanese and the Italians
39:15and the other companies that were disabled during the war
39:19got themselves started up again,
39:21they started up with modern equipment, their modern methods,
39:24they were cheaper,
39:26and Singer then suddenly found themselves in a marketplace
39:30under extreme pressure.
39:35I don't think genuinely in the marketplace
39:38there is a real loyalty.
39:40I think when a new product comes onto the market
39:43that is as good or better and is cheaper,
39:47then people will automatically go for it.
39:55Competition started slowly at first.
39:58The Japanese didn't really get their sewing machines right to begin with,
40:02but when they started to get them right,
40:04they started to make them better and better.
40:07Better and better and better.
40:09And they could produce exactly the same machine
40:12for approximately half the price.
40:16When you bought a Singer, you were buying the best.
40:19When you buy a Bentley, you're buying something special.
40:22If it's not special anymore, then why would you pay the money?
40:27Clyde Bank was one of Singer's oldest manufacturing facilities
40:31and was in desperate need of investment.
40:34What surprised me as a new graduate out of college
40:38was just how old-fashioned Singer was.
40:41The methods that they were using
40:43were the same that they'd been using
40:45in the times of the Industrial Revolution almost.
40:48Machinery was old-fashioned.
40:50I mean, it was old-fashioned even for its time.
40:52And there were great big belts that sort of ran,
40:55that turned the wheels, that turned the things,
40:57that turned that and turned this to make the machines work.
41:00It was very Dickensian in a lot of ways.
41:02But Singers refused to put any money in to get modernised.
41:13As their profits started to decline,
41:16Singers were forced to come up with a plan.
41:19Singers were dropping like a stone.
41:22And so what they first tried to do was economise.
41:25And what they did is they competed with each other.
41:28They competed factory to factory.
41:30So they would get a factory, say, in South America,
41:33to price up a sewing machine,
41:35and they would get Kilbowie to price up a sewing machine,
41:38or Elizabethport, or one of the other factories around the world.
41:41And they would get them to compete with themselves,
41:43which, of course, is a disaster.
41:45They should have been competing with the competition.
41:49The only way that we could make a profit at Clyde Bank
41:53was to make it cheaper.
41:55So that was one of my jobs,
41:58trying to make the things cheaper.
42:00And if you walked through the factory,
42:03the eyes were on you all the time
42:05in case you were coming to cut their wages.
42:13To complicate matters further,
42:15the 60s brought new affordable fashion stores
42:18to the British high street.
42:20The 60s in particular had the boutique.
42:23Fashion just underwent a huge revolution.
42:25It was a sort of meeting of youth culture and subculture
42:28that no-one could have predicted.
42:30And it made this very exciting affordable fashion,
42:33so people were less likely to want to actually go home
42:36and make their own clothes.
42:38So they weren't selling as many sewing machines,
42:40but they were still maintaining
42:42this huge sort of retail presence in the high street,
42:45and the combination of the two just...
42:47It could not be supported for any length of time.
42:52So now you had a massive behemoth,
42:55you had a giant, incredibly expensive to run.
42:59Every day, the odds were getting less and less and less,
43:03and the writing's really on the wall.
43:07Desperate to keep the Clyde Bank factory afloat,
43:10the company closed entire departments
43:13and laid off hundreds of workers.
43:15By the 1970s, you get a dramatic decrease
43:18in the number of jobs that Singer are providing.
43:21So from a high in 1911 of something like 13,000 workers,
43:25by 1973, it's only a few thousand.
43:29People talk.
43:31Workers are no daft, contrary to what management think.
43:35And they see the signs.
43:37It was only a matter of time.
43:41In June 1980, after years of unrest and worker strikes...
43:46Singer's in Clyde Bank closed its doors for the final time.
43:52Closed Singer's sewing machine factory
43:54was based on the company's falling share in the world's markets
43:58and industry's need to make a profit to exist.
44:01And the closing of Clyde Bank was simply the corporate amputation
44:05of the largest loss-making limb in the organisation.
44:08It's a bitter blow to Clyde Bank.
44:101,800 jobs have been lost in the town this year already,
44:13and unemployment has increased by 45% since 1974.
44:20I found out by reading the paper.
44:23I think everybody was devastated in Clyde Bank,
44:26you know, that such a big, big company was actually leaving for good.
44:31Nobody ever thought that Singer would close
44:35because it had been so much a part of our lives.
44:41There was no any big going-away parties or anything like that
44:44as they have nowadays, you know.
44:46That was it, and I just went down the stairs as normal
44:49and out and away, away back up the road, you know.
45:01It had been a devastating decade for Clyde Bank.
45:04John Brown's shipyards built the last ship on the site in 1972.
45:11Well, Clyde Bank, I mean, it had a double whammy
45:14because they lost two industries.
45:16They lost shipbuilding and sewing machines.
45:19It was just devastation.
45:22It became a different place.
45:24There's nothing that could take the place of these big engineering places.
45:29Yeah, it was like a ghost town,
45:31as if somebody had hit Clyde Bank with a hammer.
45:36And all the other things that you did in Singer,
45:40you know, with all your friends, like dancing in,
45:44that was a blow.
45:52So this is the Titan crane,
45:54which is the kind of last symbol of the John Brown shipyards
45:57which used to be here.
46:00Now, the crane itself is pretty much
46:02the only lasting remnant of the shipyards.
46:06It feels kind of sad that there was so much history
46:09and so many people worked here
46:11and there's such a pride, and there still is such a pride,
46:14in the shipyards and Clyde built
46:16and being from Clyde Bank and all that.
46:18And it is a bit sad that, you know,
46:20we didn't get to see Clyde Bank at its most bustling
46:23and its most proud, you know.
46:33Former workers of Singer's Clyde Bank factory
46:36meet regularly to share their memories.
46:39I had gone away for a while and then came back into Singer,
46:42and when I came back, I thought,
46:44oh, now this is not what it was before, you know.
46:47There was a different atmosphere in the whole place
46:50because I think people were beginning to get a bit anxious.
46:53I mean, there definitely was a sense of, you know, foreboding.
46:57Doom and gloom. Doom and gloom, exactly.
47:00But the clock came down before they closed the place.
47:13We never knew anything about it beforehand.
47:16You know, it hadn't been publicised or anything.
47:19It just started one working day and started taking it to bits.
47:24And in those days, in the factory,
47:29if I had a quiet time,
47:31I would write wee poems about the people in the factory.
47:34And I wrote this one after they started taking the clock down,
47:38called Whodunit.
47:40I'd like to find the culprit, the one who'll take the blame,
47:44who stole the Singer clock away and covered us with shame.
47:48An edifice that filled the sky, a credit to the town.
47:53I'd like to find Egypt, who had our clock pulled down,
47:57who had our clock pulled down.
48:01Our councillors were silent.
48:03They had not much to say.
48:05We never heard a whisper when the clock was taken away.
48:09So instead of being world-renowned,
48:12as far as I can see,
48:14all we've got left are photos of where the clock should be.
48:19MUSIC PLAYS
48:25Aye, the Yanks, they must be laughing, even to this very day,
48:29for they took the workings of our clock to the old US away.
48:34So now a certain Daydream helped me put him in the dock,
48:38the empty-headed bampot who gave away our clock.
48:48MUSIC CONTINUES
49:19MUSIC CONTINUES
49:26The Singer machines, made in Clydebank,
49:29are not just relics of the past.
49:32The Kilbarry machines are really very straightforward to service,
49:37but what we do have to do at this age is a lot of cleaning
49:41to get dirty, sticky oil from what are meant to be moving, spinning parts.
49:49In a small industrial estate in Southampton,
49:52a charity called Tools for Self-Reliance
49:55breathes new life into old sewing machines.
50:01Retired schoolteacher Alan has been volunteering here for ten years.
50:08What we have in here is a Singer 99.
50:13It's about 1920 when it was made.
50:18These machines are really astounding.
50:21Because of the skill that was used in making this sewing head,
50:25this sewing head is the bit that we need to make sure works perfectly,
50:29because, of course, when it does,
50:31you can carry on sewing and sewing and sewing and sewing.
50:35The Singer sewing machine really comes from a time
50:38when the phrase throwaway culture hadn't been invented at all.
50:42Some of the earliest ones we see are probably 1912, 1913.
50:50Sometimes when we open up the case,
50:53we find some very, very personal stories.
50:55And there's one just here that's turned up
50:58from Rosemary in the United Kingdom,
51:00and she says, I'm now 55 years old
51:03and have learnt to sew on this machine, which was my mother's.
51:08Wonderful.
51:11The charity refurbishes over 300 manual Singer sewing machines a year.
51:18By the time they've been taken apart, oiled, cleaned, put back together,
51:23they will be as good as new.
51:29So, really, this is the last stages to make sure
51:33that it works and works and works and works and works and doesn't fail.
51:38And, really, that's a compliment to the designers of that machine,
51:42because that is 98 years old, a wonderful piece of engineering.
51:50My job is done.
51:58The joke is, of course, is when you finish,
52:00there shouldn't be any parts left in the tin lid.
52:12Once packed, the sewing machines are shipped to their destination
52:163,000 miles away, to Accra in Ghana.
52:31The charity Street Girls Aid trains women on the refurbished sewing machines.
52:37When I first came, it was very difficult,
52:40because I didn't know how to cut, how to use the machine.
52:44After the training, I learnt how to sew,
52:47and I learnt how to sew on the sewing machine.
52:50I learnt how to sew on the sewing machine.
52:53I learnt how to sew on the sewing machine.
52:56I learnt how to cut, how to use the machine.
52:59After the training, I find it very easy to do everything, and I'm very happy.
53:05I am interested in fashion, and I prefer to be a seamstress,
53:10so I chose the sewing centre.
53:13I find it very interesting how you cut, and then you join pieces,
53:17and it becomes something beautiful. It's very nice.
53:23Along with sewing, the girls also learn how to design clothes from scratch.
53:29The machines that we use are single machines.
53:32It doesn't matter if the machines are old or not.
53:35The machines that they bring are very durable.
53:38The ones we have on the market are sometimes very low quality.
53:42So we are very grateful for these machines, because they are very strong.
53:49Most of the girls sewing prefer the hand machine, and not the electric one.
53:55Yes, this one is best. This one, you're not going to pay any electricity bills.
54:00In Ghana, sewing is a profession.
54:03You choose to do it because you earn more money in it. It's not just a hobby.
54:07For these girls too, they can sew, and then people will bring their clothes,
54:12then they sew it for them.
54:14Sewing is a very big business in Ghana.
54:19At the end of the year-long training course, the girls get to take the machine with them.
54:25It carries them through the training, and when they graduate, they take it to start their business.
54:31They see the opportunity.
54:33Once you have your sewing machine, you can start just in front of your shop,
54:37or you can even go around and do people's things for them.
54:41So they see that it's very easy to start their business.
54:50Over 20 girls graduate from the course every year.
54:54Yes, because you can't sew anything without a machine.
54:57So having a sewing machine is going to change my life, big time.
55:02When I leave this center, I'm getting my own business, so that I can work on my own.
55:10I'll become a good and professional quality seamstress.
55:16So I'll own my own shop.
55:20I love it if I sew for someone, and I see the person wearing, and then, shh, you are good to go.
55:41It was just all such good fun, when I think back on it.
55:45Just the camaraderie, just the carry-on that went on.
55:50It was just lovely, you know.
55:58You're looking brilliant, Pat.
56:00Thank you, Mum.
56:01It's so lovely to see you so well.
56:03Look how young you are in that.
56:05Oh, I know.
56:06My goodness.
56:08And that was us in our heyday, Maureen.
56:10Do you remember where that was taken?
56:12That's Blackpool, when we went with some of the girls in the plant.
56:16Oh, I remember that, yeah.
56:17After that.
56:18I mean, we really are young there.
56:20Couldn't have, huh?
56:21Life wasn't as complicated then as it is now.
56:24And that's the Singer magazine.
56:26That's the Singer magazine.
56:28Life wasn't as complicated then as it is now.
56:31And that's the Singer magazine.
56:33Oh, my goodness, are they years ago?
56:351959.
56:361959?
56:37I know.
56:38Vicki says, imagine keeping a magazine all these years.
56:40I know.
56:41And I says, it was vanity, because I'm on the front of it.
56:43That's never you.
56:45It is.
56:48So it is, Anna.
56:50Oh, my goodness.
56:52I would have held on to it as well, if I was in it.
56:55And you were a lady in waiting?
56:57I was a maid of honour.
56:59Oh, you were a maid of honour.
57:00Excuse me.
57:01Is that better than a lady in waiting?
57:02Yes.
57:03Anyway, happy marriage.
57:05Really nice.
57:06You know, I wouldn't have lasted in that place if Anna hadn't been there.
57:09Oh.
57:10Quite honestly.
57:12I think the company makes all the difference in the world.
57:15You made so many friends, didn't you?
57:17Oh, we did, my goodness.
57:25Well, it's nice to look back, you know, to when we were that age
57:29and remember the things that we did, you know,
57:32and that we did enjoy life at that age.
57:37I'm just ashamed to say I never had a Singer sewing machine.
57:40LAUGHTER
57:55Singer was such a community of people who worked hard
57:59and enjoyed the simple things.
58:04Singers was the place, you know.
58:07I was happy when I was at my work.
58:11You couldn't go 20 yards without running into people you knew.
58:14You got to know everybody.
58:16And they got to know you.
58:19The good friendships and good to work with and that, you know.
58:24That was absolutely tremendous.
58:54MUSIC FADES