Story by Ronnie Bentwood

I was born in 1929 in London. I came to Manchester in 1940 when I was eleven years old. The firm my father worked for in London was bombed during the blitz and so he decided to move the whole family up to Manchester. He had relations in Manchester and we settled in Prestwich. At the time Prestwich wasn't a mainly Jewish area I'd say it was half-and-half not like today. When we first moved to Manchester we rented a pre-war, four bedroomed semi-detached house. Then we moved to Windsor Road, the houses in that road were built around 1930. The Windsor Road house was smaller and had three bedrooms and I lived there until I got married.

The first school I attended in Manchester was on Bury Old Road called Heaton Primary School. From there I went onto Bury Grammar School. There were just six Jewish children at Bury Grammar when I was there. I left in 1947 at the age of eighteen, after I had taken my exams.

After I left school in 1947 I spent three years in the Raincoat industry and then joined my father in his small fur manufacturing business. My father was a Chambermaster, that is he made fur garments for retail traders. This generated a steady living but I could see that the real profit was to be made by retailing ourselves. An opportunity arose when I was asked by the manager of Affleck & Brown (a subsidiary of the Debenhams Group) to operate their fur department on a concession basis. This was the opportunity I had been looking for and with help of a partner who had access to funds and supplies of made up garments we expanded into a company that we names Sovereign Furs Ltd. We ran sixteen outlets throughout the country as well as a manufacturing and wholesale organisation.

We quickly found that in the fur trade styles tended to be seasonal so there was always a demand for a skilled craftsman to alter and restyle fur garments. In order to do this the craftsman needed to be at hand to measure and advise the customer. With sixteen outlets it was impossible for me or another skilled employee to cover the demand. Finally I devised a method by which any of the assistants could measure a customer for a remodel or even for the bespoke manufacture of a special order. The method was this- the assistant would try on one of our stock garments as near to the customer's size as possible. She would then make a note of any variations to the norm such as sleeve length, bust size etc. and send a completed form and the customer's coat back to the factory. We had very few 'misfits' using this method.

... I have three loves in my life - my wife and children, golf (at which I achieved a reasonable standard as an enthusiastic amateur) and the Jewish Lads Brigade (JLB) later to become the Jewish Lads & Girls Brigade (JLGB). ...

The most skilled part of the manufacture of a fur garment is the sorting of the pelts by colour texture and quality. This art can only be learned by experience and requires a keen eye and much patience. However the ranching or farming of the most expensive types of furs has made the Matcher's job a lot easier. However the beauty and evenness of the finished garment still rests with the skill of the Matcher. All fur garments except Mink, Persian Lamb, Beaver and spotted furs such as Ocelot and Leopard are made from rows of skins one above the other. The length of the finished garment and the number of rows being governed to a large extent by the length of the original pelts. The pelts are 'let-out' or 'dropped' by cutting as many as forty five cuts per pelt in a 'V', cut from the outer edge to the centre and the skilled machinist would then sewn these v-cuts lower down to lengthen and narrow the pelts so that the fur runs from top to bottom without showing any seams. This would not have been possible without a special fur machine, which was designed by a firm, called Allbrook and Hashfield in the late 1800's. Their machine had a needle that ran horizontally across two flat cups which had serrated edges that gripped the two pieces of fur. This method produced a flat overlocked stitch, which only takes up a minute piece of the precious pelt. The operator pushes the fur down so that it is not caught in the seam. It takes many years of experience to become a skilful cutter and machinist of fur skins.

When the garment has been assembled into the rough shape the whole coat is 'wetted' and the body, sleeves, collar etc are 'nailed-out', onto a pattern, on a board and allowed to dry naturally. When the parts are removed from the nailing-board they are trimmed off, backed and taped to avoid stretching and sewn together into the finished garment which is then hand lined. The whole process requires skill and care of the highest standard and is a tedious operation. The large producers of garments set up production lines which speeds up the whole process but a line can only be set up for one particular type of fur. It is impossible to produce say a Mink and Squirrel garment on the same production line. Waste from the production of new garments is sold to specialists dealers and is made into plates, using only 1 type of skin in each plate which is then made into a complete garment using the process described above. Musquash or Muskrat are de-haired and the hair made into felt for better quality hats. The fur trade in this country went into decline around 1988 due to the activities of the animal rights campaigners but is still very buoyant elsewhere in the world.

I have three loves in my life - my wife and children, golf (at which I achieved a reasonable standard as an enthusiastic amateur) and the Jewish Lads Brigade (JLB) later to become the Jewish Lads & Girls Brigade (JLGB). In 1949 I was invited to become an Officer in the 2nd Cadet Battalion (JLB) Lancashire Fusiliers and a 32-year association with that organisation began. I started as Assistant Adjutant, a meaningless appointment, and I graduated to Bugle Band Officer. In 1951 the JLB left the Army Cadet Force and all the Officers reverted to JLB Officers wearing a blue suit, forage cap, brown leather cross belt, glove and cane. Mr B's Bugle Band (as it became known) was the finest in the organisation and was in great demand for public functions. They travelled on many occasions to parade around the country. Transport was a problem and I claim to be the first Brigade Officer to bus his unit instead of travelling by train and then marching to the various venues which was often very tedious. I ran the Bugle Band for ten years and I started a girls Drum and Fife Band in 1962. I was then appointed Adjutant to Lt/Col Vivian Steinart the Commanding Officer of the Manchester Battalion. Eventually in 1969 I succeeded Steinart, much to my surprise and I became Commanding Officer. Under my command the unit thrived and we had a parade state of over 200 boys and girls. We moved from Elizabeth Street to Middleton Road to a custom-built youth club and recreation hall. I retired in 1981 having felt I had done much to assist the Jewish boys and girls of that generation in their growing up progress.

This story was contributed by a volunteer at Manchester Jewish Museum as part of a project in collaboration with Moving Here. All the stories collected are available in a booklet from the Manchester Jewish Museum.