大象传媒

My name's Gwen Maddocks and I'm 81.
I think it must have been just pre-war, and they decided to build a Royal Ordnance Factory on the outskirts of Wrexham, and they took a lot of farmland to build it on. They left those farms there because it was camouflage when they started to build those factories, because they had cordite and gun cotton and a nitro-glycerine plant, and there was a great big chemist block. It was a very big factory and they employed thousands. When they were building this place, of course they had to find accommodation for all the people they were bringing in. My father, at that time, had a job as a billeting officer for one of the firms, and he had a lot of difficulty placing people, because it was compulsory, I think, at that time, to take them if you had room. Unfortunately, we only had one small bedroom that was available, and my father, if he was in difficulty knowing what to do with people, he used to end up bringing them home. The first two I can remember were scaffolders, and my mother showed them where they were sleeping, and they decided they鈥檇 share. And more often than not, we鈥檇 have two men sharing one little bedroom. So you can imagine that it wasn鈥檛 very convenient, because in those days there was no bathroom, and it was an outside toilet.
I think the way we used to manage was because they obviously had to go and start early, so they were out of the house before I got up. I鈥檓 talking about 1939 now, or 1940, and I was still in school then, so I had to get up and get to school. It鈥檚 all rather hazy, but we must have managed.
I can remember most of these men, but I can鈥檛 remember all their names. But I do remember we had two nice blokes- a plumber and his mate. The plumber was called Fred Churchill and his mate was Jack Shaw. They seemed to be there quite a long time. In fact, Jack stayed longer than Fred, because Fred was married, and he found accommodation somewhere in the vicinity for him and his wife. But instead of losing them, they used to come round on a Sunday night to play cards. So the family grew!
I left school when I was nearly 17, and I managed to get a job in the Royal Ordnance Factory. That was 1941- about August, I should think. If the blinking Germans had got that instead of Minera mountain I wouldn鈥檛 be here to tell this tale now.
It was where the Trading Estate is now, all that area was the ROF- in Marchwiel, just off the Holt Road.
Well, eventually, I managed to get a job in cash office, and that鈥檚 the part I can most remember, because I really loved my job, and we had a coining machine, which was- every time you pressed one of the buttons, and held the pay packet, which was a trick I might tell you, make sure you hold the pay packet where the coins come out, because when you first learn, you鈥檙e so busy pressing half a crown that it goes all over the floor instead of into the pay packets! So, after making a few mistakes, I was very proficient at this, and I used to love to get on that machine, otherwise, I used to have to end up checking the pound notes and the ten shilling notes into the pay packet, and sticking all the envelopes down, and I didn鈥檛 particularly like that very much.
Then, every Thursday, we used to have to stay overnight, so that we could pay the different shifts as they came off. I think the first one was paid about 11 o clock, and then the next one was six o clock in the morning, and then the afternoon was about three perhaps- or half three, I can鈥檛 really remember- and then there was a day shift that was about five. So by Friday afternoon you were worn out and very bad tempered, so it wasn鈥檛 a very good time to ask anybody any questions.
It was wonderful, looking back, it really was. All my teenage years were spent during the war. And the whole atmosphere- that鈥檚 the point that we can鈥檛 seem to get over to people- the whole atmosphere was totally different. Everybody only had one purpose on their mind, and that was to win the war. So everybody was very friendly and helped one another. There was none of the nastiness that seems to go on today. But, there we are, perhaps it鈥檚 because we鈥檙e getting older, and we can鈥檛 tolerate it the same..

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