Harwich carpenter's wage slips found under dance floor
Workers demolishing a hotel and dance venue have uncovered a piece of the building industry's past.
Beneath the dance floor at the Cliff Hotel, Dovercourt, they found wage slips from a carpenter who repaired the boards 70 years ago. Resourceful Ron Howlett, in his early 20s at the time, used the pay slips to pack the dance floor where it sagged. Now, 91, he has been reunited with the slips after builders handed them to John Wade, the former hotel manager. The hotel, which housed stars of sitcom Hi-de-Hi! during filming in the 1980s, is being knocked down and rebuilt as a 61-bedroom hotel and apartments. Mr Wade, 65, knew Mr Howlett's daughter, Jill Marven and her husband Phillip because they frequently danced at the Cliff which overlooked the sea. Mrs Marven said it was the place to go in the town and regrets the passing of the kind of ballroom that it had. The weekly pay slips revealed some payments and "stoppages" that were very much "of their time", she said. These included "dirt money" of 9d per week for workers who got messy, a shilling "tool allowance" for those who used their own equipment. The largest wage, dated 8 March 1947, was for £4 3s 11d, which is the equivalent of about £150 in today's money. At the time Ron was earning 2s 2d per hour (about £3.85 today). The slips also showed weekly deductions of 5s income tax, 2s health insurance, 9d for unemployment money and 4d for hospital money - an insurance in case of serious injury. Mrs Marven, 64, said her dad had been stunned when she showed him the eight slips saved from the building where art deco style flats and another hotel are planned. "Although dad is frail, his mind is alert and the slips brought back loads of memories," she said.