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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Evelyn Layton and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
I was in Leeds working in a factory called Crabtree, down Water Lane.

I worked on a laithe, I was making the cable drums which were used for winding bombs into the under carriages of planes. I used call them cannon the big guns that the factory used to make.

I was in lodgings Monday to Friday and come home every weekend to Thurnscoe.

I had two sisters, the elder on was married and the younger one was at school.

My dad was in the 1914 war and was gassed, so he didn’t work much. Mum was a housewife looking after the family.

For the time I was well paid, not by todays standards though. I worked 12 hour shifts, 6 am to 6 pm or 6 pm to 6 am. It was a dirty job and by the time I’d got back to my lodgins and had a bath all I wanted was to go to bed.

When I came home we used to go dancing at Goldthorpe catholic Church Hall. We used to call them the local hops! We weren’t encouraged to go out late at night.

The lady where I lodged was a very good cook, she could make a meal out of nothing, so we didn’t go hungry.

We had a bit of joke about one of the neighbours. She thought she was a bit better than everyone else and one day she came out to call her children in for dinner and called ‘Come and have a dumpling with daddy’ in an affected sort of voice. We still have a laugh about it.

We had to make our own entertainment, we used to love playing cards.

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