大象传媒

I was 17 in 1940 and worked in a hotel. I knew I'd have to be called up to help with War work and when I was I first had to have a medical in Barrow. The town had been a centre for Shipbuiding and Engineering for decades and I was called in to work at Hunters shipyard. I started off drilling pivot bolts on Wellington Bombers- there were 93 on the under carriage of a Wellington.

There were 700 girls working there altogether on three shifts round the clock- 6 til 2, 2 til 10 and 10 til 6. The Foremen were all men though. One weekend in three you worked all weekend, but if you had a special occasion you could get a pass out. They put on buses for us to get to work and we had a canteen where the food was very good. It saved on food at home.

I did lots of different jobs in my time at Hunters. I was put on to be a fitter. The files were difficult and it took some learning in the various bays. I went on to welding towards the end of the war. I had also made detonators for depth charges. When these were no longer needed, I transferred to the turbine blade shop. We had aprons provided, but our shoes used to get very dirty.

When there were raids on Barrow we had to go to a shelter. The shipyard had machines to put up smoke screens. These were operated by conscientious objectors. We once had 9 consecutive nights of bombing, the German planes went first to Belfast and then to Barrow

At home my father had dug out and put up an Anderson shelter. Once we were in there my younger sister always needed to go to the Loo. Ours was outside anyway. We had no bathroom-we had a bath in the Kitchen.

Nothing stopped my friend Margaret and I going out though. She had lovely auburn hair which everybody noticed. We went to the cinema every weekday night except on Fridays, which was hair washing night. On Saturdays we went to a dance.

I met my future husband Frank in Barrow. He was a Londoner and stationed at an Army Camp on the outskirts of Barrow not far from where we lived. It wasn't a case of love at first sight though. We got to know each other gradually- we went out for a few weeks, then he was posted to India. I went out with other young men after that. I remember one was a vet from Scotland. But Frank and I wrote for the 2 years and got to know each other better. When he docked at Liverpool on his return, I thought he'd go straight home to London, but he turned up at our house. I was still had my Dinky Curlers in, so there was a rush to get ready!

We spent a short time together, then he had to go. Like most people then my family had no phone at home so as well as writing to each other, Frank and I would arrange a time to call each other from public phone boxes.

After the war ended I moved to London to be near Frank. Back then London seemed an awfully long way from Barrow in Furness and my parents were opposed to the idea at first. Of course there was no living together then. I lodged with a friends of Franks at first and worked in a factory in Leytonstone. We got engaged and then were married in London.

Just after the war it was very difficult to find anywhere to live, so we lived in with Frank's parents. By amazing chance, we met my friend Margaret while we were on a visit to Barrow. She was also visiting relatives.
She'd also married a Londoner, had a house in Stockwell and was able to offer us a room! We lived in London for 37 years altogether before coming back to the North West.

The war was a hard time for everyone but I was young, enjoyed my time in the Shipyard and met my husband as well.

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