Liquid Burn.

She turned the key in the rusty lock, her head full of the orders she would yet again complete. Sue had owned the factory since her father had died many years ago. As a young girl her father often took her to the factory. He would give her jobs in the office and pieces of wrapping paper to practice wrapping rock. Sue was always willing to please her dad. Sue's mother worked in an office at the other side of town. So Sue's dad was only too pleased to have extra time with his daughter. Sue had learned all aspects of the rock trade in those early years.

Sue, later had a daughter who married and lived in Canada. This helped Sue's business tremendously, as she began exporting her rock to a company based out there. Sue employed eight women and six men in her factory. The women wrapped and rolled the rock whilst some of the men prepared the boiling. Others worked in the packing room; making boxes and stacking completed orders onto a forklift truck.

The male sugar boilers would lift their scalding hot toffee in their scorched torn gloves and place the boiling into a batch-roller. It would then cool down to stay at the set temperature. The solid rock bundle would then be pulled from one end by the sugar boiler and spun out to the required width. Another person would then continue to roll the rock onto the chalk dusted cold slab, until the rock had cooled. The women then began rolling the rock with their hands until they could no longer reach the rest of the rows. Then with rolled up sleeves with their bare arms, rolled the full lengths of the hot rock until cooled. Another person used rock shears and a piece of wood measuring the same size as the rock, and quickly cut across the rows. They were then scooped up and laid down to form small mountains across the newly swept slab, for others to wrap.

Sometimes a customer insisted that the wrapped rock contained views. These would often slow the process of wrapping. They were placed under the stick of rock then wrapped in the cellophane so that the views displayed the town they were made in. Some days the workers also held their own competitions to while away the hours. On either side of the slab, two women would begin wrapping from the mountain pile. When finished would move onto the next until the whole boiling had disappeared. The winner was the one who wrapped the most piles of rock.

The workers worked long hours from early dusk until six each evening. They wore white headscarves to cover their hair. Even the men had to conform to the rule. They also wore starched white coats and by the time they arrived home they all smelled as sweet as the toffee they had made.

The busy workforce also had to ensure strict hygiene rules. The floors were regularly swept and mopped, but did not stop droppings of toffe and puddles of water.

One day the floor had been so saturated whilst making glass lollies that Sue armed with her jug of boiling liquid, slipped and landed on her back. It stuck to her like glue, causing severe burns over her body and face.

Two years after that horrific accident, the rock factory was sold to new owners. Sue had numerous skin grafts but did not recover mentally. Today she is still in a secure place in a mental health unit, miles from her beloved factory.