Class

The whole issue around class is fraught and I’m very pleased that it has become much less important over my lifetime. Looking back I can see that in the village where I grew up  was almost feudal. The class distinctions were more finely graded than working and middle. At the top was the local landowner who descended from lofty heights each year to give us children at the village school a present every Christmas. This was done via the teachers as the landowner only rarely appeared at ceremonial occasions. The only one I recall was a tree planting.

Next in the hierarchy was a farmer who owned his farm and land who stood above the tenant farmers who, while high status,,rented their farms from the landowner. Then in the village were the professionals respected because of their position, the teachers and the parson.

A few skilled workers came next, the blacksmith for example. On the farms the skilled and responsible were rated alongside, such as the cowman. I suppose also the tenant publican.

At the bottom were those who sold just their labour. In my village these were agricultural
labourers and miners. Curiously even these had a ranking with those who were respectable and those who were not. Respectable meant no debts, moderate drinking, family men while the disrespectable were the debt ridden heavy drinkers. The issue of debt was central, my parents had a horror of debt because that it might drag them down. I accepted all of this as just the way of the world.

When I went to grammar school it marked a boundary. I was at once respected by my elders and reviled by my contemporaries. At school there was no great class consciousness. My school group was predominantly middle class and urban. There were a handful from working class families and few from villages. Oddly the only snobbery I encountered came later from the headmaster who was acutely class aware at the sixth form level.

Class was rarely an issue at university. The students from the UK were mainly from working or lower middle class backgrounds at this ex College of Technology. The subjects offered which were mainly engineering at the time did not to attract those planning  more recreational arts and humanities subjects or the traditional professions. The big difference was with the non UK students who were about a 25% of the total. Almost by definition they came from families  who could afford to send them to study in the UK and tended to be high status in their own country. One of my friends was the son of a Pakistani diplomat. I remember being quite shocked when another friend from Kashmir talked casually of buying a car.

When I started work for Unilever I found I was catapulted into a different class. For example as a graduate I had automatic access to the senior dining room. At that time ( in the mid sixties ) the company was extremely hierarchical. I almost feared I was expected to make use of all the management privileges. It came as something of a relief when I realised that the scientific staff, particularly the younger ones, didn’t greatly care, using whatever they found convenient. If anything there was a qualification ranking and as a mere graduate I was low against all those with doctorates and post doc study. This did stimulate me to work for a years release to study for a Masters degree.

There was a fine grained hierarchy within the laboratories. The technical assistants always wore lab coats while the scientists didn’t unless they ( rarely ) were doing some job requiring protection from splashes. Among the scientists the more senior had single offices, the less senior shared offices, and junior had to make do with a desk space in a laboratory.

I spent 15 years with Unilever and saw in the later 70’s a big change in attitude. It became company policy to abandon the old paternalist ways and with them adopt a different approach where differentials were much more on salary and much less on privileges.

Working in smaller companies the environment was much less class orientated. Even in Castrol the structure was far less rigid although remnants remained. The senior dining room with waitress service was only removed when it became physically possible to have a large self service dining room catering to everyone.

The Castrol headquarters while nominally open plan offices, actually evolved into small groups separating themselves by arrangement of cupboards, cabinets etc. At least here the separation was by function rather than hierarchy.

This flattening has become more widespread in society as a whole although class awareness is very persistent. A village friend who is completely middle class by home ownership, previous management jobs and his own business insists he is working class. I was brought up in the working class but I recognise changes have occurred. The one change I have tried to make deliberately ( and failed ) is in my speech. I have a slight West Midlands accent, not noticeable in that area but anywhere else in the country immediately identifiable. While regional accents have become totally acceptable, even de rigeur to some, I don’t like the “ Brummie” association.