five in the evening
There was also a letter from an individual who signed himself ` Morpheus ' complaining that he was often awakened out of his beauty sleep in the middle of the night by the clattering noise of the workmen 's boots as they passed his house on their way to work in the morning . ` Morpheus ' wrote that not only did they make a dreadful noise with their horrible iron-clad boots , but they were in the habit of coughing and spitting a great deal , which was very unpleasant to hear , and they conversed in loud tones . Sometimes their conversation was not at all edifying , for it consisted largely of bad language , which ` Morpheus ' assumed to be attributable to the fact that they were out of temper because they had to rise so early . As a rule they worked till half-past five in the evening , and by the time they reached home it was six o'clock . When they had taken their evening meal and had a wash it was nearly eight : about nine most of them went to bed so as to be able to get up about half past four the next morning to make a cup of tea before leaving home at half past five to go to work again . Frequently it happened that they had to leave home earlier than this , because their ` job ' was more than half an hour 's walk away . It did not matter how far away the ` job ' was from the shop , the men had to walk to and fro in their own time , for Trades Union rules were a dead letter in Mugsborough .