大象传媒

My story starts in 1940 when I was directed into Works at A.V. ROC at the age of 16years. I rated it at first then my friend had to go on nights, I asked could I go with her. I got permission, the men already on nights didnt want us, but we didnt care we just got on with building the Lancashire Bomber. Eventually they came round and we all got on well together, we worked from 7pm until 7am seven nights a week for about 18months with one sunday night off in six weeks, at last we got Saturday nights off. I worked on the bomb doors, outer skins and inner skins. Trailing edge, auerlons and nacellers, it was interesting and exciting times for a youngster and I became the fastest tiveter and driller on nights. Two afternoons a week we used to get up and go dancing to the Plaza and Ritz in Manchester where I met a yank who came from Paris in Texas. We didnt for them at first as they were always bragging we became good friends thats all it was until he was posted to Germany. He wanted me to wait for him then marry him, but i was too young and I was enjoying life for any of that. I was proud of the fact that I was helping to build the finest bomber of all time. It was my parents that did the worrying when we had to work through the raids, until the signal for the imminent danger when we had to troop down to the cellars with the cinder floors and whitewash walls with cockroaches crawling up the walls. So I joined the first aid and did fire watch which allowed me to go up on the roof away from those awfulcockroaches, they used to give me the creeps. Up on the roof we had to look out for incendary bombs.
I didn't have much home life, because as soon as I finished my night shift I used to take a cup of tea up to my Mum, then once a week it was my job to blacklead a big range which we had were my Mum did all her cooking and baking in. Then up to bed I went, but not before I put 40 steel rollers in my hair, which I did every morning before going to bed as I took pride in my hair, and I used to have my face powder mixed to my satisfaction from Lewis's Manchester. They had a counter specially for make up and it cost me a shilling. (5 pence). Just because I didn't have a lot of social life it didn't mean I couldn't have my hair and make up nice.
There was so much to tell about the war years. I can only put it in a nutshell, my daughter Glenis used to say to me, "Mum why don't you write a book about the war years and your experiences" I suppose I could have, but I'm afraid so much happened that i would still be writing it. I could fill volumes, same as everyone else of my age. I am now 82 years old but still have my memories, and no one can take those away from me. I need glasses, have false teeth and I make mistakes when I write to anyone, but what do you expect?
My wage for working all those hours was 拢5.00 a week as I wasn't 21 years and every birthday you got a small and I mean small rise, so to help out, I took a Saturday job at Lewis's after working 12 hours the previous night for which I received 7s 6d (37p) from 8.30 a.m. until 6.00 p.m. When we finished at 6.00 we went over to Piccadilly to have a wash and brush up in the toilets, then went either to the pictures or to a pub, that's if they hadn't sold out of beer. Went home to bed and slept all day Sunday until it was time for my shift at 7.00 a.m., but I loved every minute of the five years I spent on night shift working on the famous Lancaster bomber at AV Roe. I received the Civil defence Medal for first aid and fire watching duty

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