大象传媒

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I was a milliner at Sunman and Hewson鈥檚 hat factory when I volunteered to go and work at Vauxhall about 2 to 3 weeks after it was bombed in 1940. I was in the first 10 women to work at Vauxhall; we were all volunteers, the others who came later were sort of press ganged.

We鈥檇 been there a few days when there was an almighty bang. All the lights went out and the machines shut down. When they opened the doors to let the light in, all the girls were standing at the machines and the men were coming out from all sorts of places looking very sheepish. You couldn鈥檛 blame them, they鈥檇 got away with one lot of bombing not long before, it was instinct. It was the great long generator that had blown, it made a terrific bang.

When Vauxhall was attacked just before I started work there, we were told that it was the airport that had been bombed, which it had, but we didn鈥檛 know anything about Vauxhall. When I went to catch a bus up at the top of Williamson Street, I saw all these open lorries driving up the road filled with men in bandages, quite a gruesome site. When I got home Sid, my husband, was already there, (it was too early for him to be home) so I said, 鈥淲hat are you doing here?鈥� He was quite upset because I wasn鈥檛 concerned about him, but I didn鈥檛 know that Vauxhall had been hit. The bomb had struck the corner of the building where he'd been working in the press shop. Several people died and a terrific amount were wounded but although Sid felt the blast, he wasn鈥檛 injured.

I worked on the massive drill and tap machines, 3 drills and a tap to put a screw in. We made all sorts of bits for Churchill tanks, mostly in the shop where I worked, but I was bored stiff on the drills. Some things were so small that you were doing hundreds an hour, some weren鈥檛 and they were as much as you could lift and put in a jig. When I asked to do welding it was because I was fascinated by the sparks coming out of the booth and I thought; I鈥檇 like to do that.

It took me a long while to get into the welding booth because they thought I was mad, they weren鈥檛 putting women in there, but I kept on until the manager got fed up with me. He said 鈥淩ight. We鈥檒l give you a week.鈥� I was there until I left. When they saw I was sticking with it, other women were put in the welding booth whether they liked it or not. It didn鈥檛 do much for my reputation, it got around that it was my fault and several of them came up to me and said I was the reason they were stuck in there, but I enjoyed it.

We worked on very heavy pieces of welding for the Churchill tanks and stillages were a king鈥檚 ransom, you just couldn鈥檛 get hold of them. Stillages were large metal containers. One night I was filling this stillage up while I was working on great long 6ft pipes, welding big flanges. They had different size holes where different pipes or cables went through. I couldn鈥檛 lift one now, but then I used to lift one up and throw it in the stillage. I put one too many on and they all rolled off onto my feet but as luck would have it I had my steel capped shoes on. I normally worked in sandals, so someone was looking after me that night. Two or three men came running and helped me into the surgery. My toes came up black and stopped like that for years.

We women were always in trouble, 鈥淵ou girls who鈥檝e come from the hat factory!鈥� They鈥檇 say. We started work at 7.30 am in the morning when normally in the hat factory we'd start at 9 am. We never had any breakfast so at about 10 o鈥檆lock we were ready for something. We used to down tools, switch our machines off and go to the cloakroom and have our lunch, (we used to take a sandwich or something). We didn鈥檛 stop all that long, about 15 - 20 minutes and would go back to the foreman tearing his hair out. The manager used to come round, rant and rage at us but we didn鈥檛 take any notice, we still did it the next day, in fact we did it twice a day. We were working 7.30 am until 7.30 pm and you needed a tea break as well. They threatened us with the sack and all sorts. We still didn鈥檛 care, we were all married, all about the same age, and at the finish, they couldn鈥檛 beat us so they had to join us. They gave the men quarter of an hour break as well and as far as I know, they still have it. The trouble was before the war, you lived in dread of losing your job, the least thing and you were out, it was a dreadful place to work. They weren鈥檛 used to girls from the hat factory who were independent.

The hat factories were depleted during the war but kept on working. We were working on W.V.S and W.R.N.S hats when I left. I hated the W.V.S ones, they were all bands and bows and I was a milliner not a trimmer. I was never any good at repetitive work. That was my trouble when I went to Vauxhall!

They put me on a different line one night and to get a bonus you had to do a hundred of something but this was impossible, I timed myself for one hour, going as fast as I could, which you couldn鈥檛 do for long and just made it. 鈥淗ow do the men do it?鈥� I asked. I enquired and found that they didn鈥檛 make any bonus on that line because they couldn鈥檛, so I complained. I said, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do it. If I鈥檓 on that machine tomorrow night when I come in, I鈥檓 going home鈥�. The line you were on was marked up on a big blackboard, so the next night I never clocked in, I went and looked at the blackboard, found I was on that particular line and went home. The next morning I went to see the manager. He said, 鈥淚鈥檓 glad you鈥檝e come, we were going to send for you.鈥� I said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I鈥檝e come.鈥� He started to rant and I said, 鈥淚f I鈥檓 on the same machine tonight I shall go home again!鈥� Didn鈥檛 he rave! I couldn鈥檛 have cared less. I went and looked at the board that night and I was back on my own line.

We were all young married women, and later on the manager said that the ten of us who worked there first, were the best workers he had. We got on with whatever they gave us but they didn鈥檛 like us answering back. They were so used to the men being worried about their jobs and not complaining. I think it was an eye opener for the men, especially the foremen and managers. We girls did have some fights on our hands one way and another. One or two of the managers didn鈥檛 like women there at all and did everything they could to make us leave, but you couldn鈥檛 do that during the war, you had to have a jolly good excuse if you left.

I was 24 and joined the darts team. We did very well and started a ladies one as well. I was the first woman to get three 60s there one night. I was supposed to have a certificate but it never arrived.

I used to cycle to Vauxhall. I used to chain my bike up to the sewage plant railings and tear up to the gate before they shut it. I very often missed the bus so I鈥檇 rush back home to get my bike and beat the bus. It was a dedicated bus; they had a terrific number just going there in the mornings, lunch and tea times.

I used to walk home about 11 o鈥檆lock at night from Vauxhall to Stopsley, where I lived, completely unconcerned. Sometimes I heard footsteps coming towards me and I鈥檇 get in the middle of the road until they鈥檇 gone past. It was dark, no lights, there was nothing from Round Green until you got right into Stopsley. Coming up the hill there was a spinney by the Chase and we called it the tramp鈥檚 restaurant. There were always tramps in there, you could hear rustling in the trees but it didn鈥檛 used to bother me at all. Tramps in those days minded their own business and never bothered anyone.

There was one particular tramp who came to the house twice a year for years asking if he could have a drop of tea in his can. Mother was a fool with them and by the time he鈥檇 done, he鈥檇 got hot water, milk and sugar. Nice cheery fellow. We used to get a lot of tramps round before the war and Mother would say that she didn鈥檛 know why they came to our house. The tramp said, 鈥淚 do. You鈥檝e got a mark on the gate.鈥� I went out and washed the gate and the gateposts but we couldn鈥檛 see a mark and they still kept coming. We never did find out what the mark was.

My Father kept cows in the nearest fields to the house, which he rented from the council before they built houses on them. The council sold the land to Jane鈥檚 the builders. He had a big milk round in the town that he lost during the war so they gave him a local round. He couldn鈥檛 get any petrol for his car so he had to buy a barrow thing and it was really hard work. He originally delivered to all the streets off Park Street up to Tennyson Road. I remember it because he had an old Morris that you had to wind up with a handle and it kicked back and broke his wrist. He managed to drive, but the churns were very big and the milk had to be dished out in jugs, so I went with him and dished the milk out for a week or two while he drove.

When Dad was still doing his rounds in Luton he delivered along Bedford Road. He was walking with his small churn when Gerry came over, machine gunning. He had to shoot up an alleyway between the houses. The terraces of houses all had alleyways then.

I was walking back from Cockernhoe when they dropped 2 land mines on the bus depot at Luton. It was a Sunday night and I had the Rex the dog on a lead. There was Hubert, Betty, Sid and I, and we could hear this plane. Hubert looked up and said, 鈥淕et under cover quick. It鈥檚 Gerry.鈥� You could see the plane although it was dark, it was so low and we were on the high part of the road between Cockernhoe and Stopsley. We shot through a gate and got under the hedge as it came over. The dog knew it was a German plane. He always knew when it was a German plane and was down in the shelter before we were. We always knew what plane it was, by the dog. That night he knew it was a German plane and snapped his lead as if it was a piece of tissue paper. So of course, never mind the German plane, I shot down the road after him and they were shouting at me because the Gerries were very fond of gunning whenever they saw anything. We got just along there a little way when they sent this bomb down on the bus depot and the blast hit us.

They dropped a bomb at Farley Hill which didn鈥檛 explode. There were quite a few that didn鈥檛; there was one hanging in the airport, swinging on the roof until they could get the people to deal with it. That night a terrific lot of damage was done around Park Street. There were streets blown up that night and someone who lived in Seymour Road said their piano shot across the room and out in the garden. A terrific number of people were injured with flying glass.

Various planes came down. I remember going to Breechwood Green and seeing the remains of parachutes up in the trees. One night they got a German pilot out of the plane alive, after it had hit a huge tree. There was a POW camp at Lilley on the left hand side just before the church, in huts on the recreation field. They were thrilled to bits to be there and used to go down the pub. A lot were quite happy and didn鈥檛 go home. There was a trail of women who came up from the town.

Phyllis my sister, had three evacuee children that wouldn鈥檛 be parted. They were friends from the same school and the parents had asked if they could be kept together. They were among the last evacuee children to be allocated a home; Phyllis was one of the last to get there so she took them. Two of the children were alright but one came from a very poor family. Her mother never wrote to her or came down or anything but her older sister used to come and bring her things. The little one didn鈥檛 see much of her parents, but the middle one had been brought up nicely and the parents used to come down every few weeks to see her. To start with Phyllis had to de-louse the oldest and youngest child. You collected the powder from the depots where they brought the children in. Two of them had never sat down to a meal or used a knife and fork before. The eldest one was about 12, the middle one about 9 and the little one, 7. If they鈥檇 all been like the middle one it would have been alright, all they knew was a bit of food in their hands and sit on the doorstep. The children didn鈥檛 want to go back. They were quite happy. I suppose they had a better life being evacuated.

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