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This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Tim Davoile on behalf of Doris Hopkins and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Frank Hopkins and May Lucas were married in Coventry, August 1912. At the outbreak of World War two they had five children, Mabel, Doris, Len, Gladys and Joan. They also had one grandson, David.

The family lived in Stephen Street (on the site now occupied by the Radford Road fire station). Mabel and her son, David, lived at number 19, with the rest of the family occupying number 7.

Doris recalls. ‘When the war broke out I was working at Courtaulds, in the silk winding department. We use to work shifts, 6am till 2pm and 2pm till 10pm, week about. If they were busy they would get us to work from 6am till 6pm. We got a half hour break for dinner, and out of that we would have to come down endless stone steps, run into the courtyard in Matlock Road, over the bridge in Foleshill Road and into the main entrance on the opposite side (opposite the engineering department). Then we had to queue up for a cup of tea and eat our sandwiches. We’d no sooner done that and we’d have to run all the way back again.

We used to spin silk to make material for stockings and clothes and things like that. During the war it was used for military purposes, such as parachutes. A lot of it was exported to America as well, which was good for trade of course. Sometimes, what we use to do was write little notes to the Americans, like ‘we are being bombed and we hope you never have anything like this’. You know how you do these things when you’re younger, hoping we might get a message back.

We worked 48 hours (51/2 days) a week for 13s and 1d (65p), with a 2s and 6d rise on your birthday. Overtime was paid at the same rate as ordinary time. I gave all my wages to my mother, who, to begin with, would give me 9d back for myself. Out of that I had to buy my own stockings and they were a shilling (12d) a pair. I well remember one week I’d laddered these stockings and I thought, I’ll have to buy a new pair, but I hadn’t got a shilling. Anyway, what I did was buy a 2d scan (a small card of cotton) of darning cotton and mend them myself. There was no such thing as asking your mother for the money because she simply hadn’t got it. You tried to give her as much as you could. But then the nylon stockings came in and they were just like gold. You use to send to America or Ireland, because they’d got them. You use to send your money, but you never knew if you would get them. That’s how I got a pair for my wedding.

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