- Contributed by听
- culture_durham
- People in story:听
- Ellen Hendry (nee Robinson) and family
- Location of story:听
- Grangetown, Sunderland, North East England
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4185100
- Contributed on:听
- 13 June 2005
I left school when I was 14 but our school was closed down for part of the war. Not all schools were but ours was. We could go to different houses but it didn鈥檛 really work out and so we missed a lot of education. No-one bothered too much if you didn鈥檛 go. My Headmistress asked if I would work for this lady who was working for the Red Cross and didn't have any family and wanted help in the house.
When I was 16 I went to work at the Box Factory at Grangetown in Sunderland. I enjoyed it. We made ammunition carriers. They were all women there except for 2 or 3 charge hands or storemen. They we 2鈥, 3" and 4.2" mortars - sheets of very thin cardboard on a conveyor belt, cut to size and glued and rolled up and dipped into wax until they were very hard. The carriers would hold half a dozen and were blocks of wood and lids were put and webbing so you could carry them. I was there until the end of the war. We weren't paid very much - we would start at 7.30 a.m. and work to 6.30 p.m. with a lunch break, and Saturday mornings
- 55 hours a week. There was a canteen at the factory but I lived near enough to get home at lunch time. My hands used to be lovely because we dipped them in the wax! I would have liked to join the ATS but I wasn't old enough. The ship yards were getting short of manpower and there was talk about putting women in the shipyards - I really didn't want to do that. Richard was on leave once - he'd been wounded. I came home and there was a letter saying I had to go for an interview to work in the ship yards. I was in a real rage when I went back to work and told the girls. When I got back home, the family had to tell me it was a joke by Richard!
My father was a miner, working underground. There were a lot of Bevin Boys at his pit. With all the bombing in Sunderland he used to go and offer his service as he was used to digging.
Disclaimer: Story submitted by Allison Brook at Willington Library on behalf of Mrs Ellen Hendry
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