- Contributed by听
- brssouthglosproject
- People in story:听
- Margaret Hawkins
- Location of story:听
- Bristol Aeroplane Factory, Filton, South Gloucestershire
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A6265992
- Contributed on:听
- 21 October 2005
When I was 17 years old, I was being trained to be a pharmacist. It was war time and I had been directed by the government to either be a nurse, or to go into the services or a factory. I went to Bristol Aeroplane Company at Patchway. We worked 12 hour days for 2 weeks at a time, and then 12 hour nights for 2 weeks, there were no days off!
I worked on a Profiler machine. This was used for shaping the insides of pistons for engines. The wage was (拢2.12s.6d) two pounds, 12 shillings and 6 pence per week, working on days; and (拢2.15s) two pounds 15 shillings for working on nights per week. This was a totally different working environment that I was working in, to what I was used to when training to be a Pharmacist, but this was war time, and my services were required in the factory.
I remember an incident very vividly. In the next bay to me was the lathe machines, and one night a girl named Yvonne who had beautiful long hair, did not wear the regulation hair net we were supposed to wear, to protect the hair, and she caught her hair in the spindle and was scalped. It was awful!
The air raid sirens warned the public that enemy aircraft were a certain distance away. In order to maximise aircraft production, we at BAC were warned when the enemy aircraft were within a certain radius, by special tunes; and so we downed tools and used to go to the shelters in an air raid, to the tune of Colonel Bogie 鈥淭he Bugles鈥 it was nicknamed, and then the 鈥渁ll clear鈥 tune which meant we could go back to work was the song 鈥淢arching Thro Georgia鈥.
On the day of the legendary air raid on Wednesday 24th September 1940, my friend and I walked home to Patchway from Filton. Down the hill we passed huge craters of unexploded bombs. And on the A38 by the airfield, we saw the after effects of the soldier battalion that were killed, just by the front gates. We didn鈥檛 realise until afterwards how dangerous it was, as Filton Hill was closed afterwards.
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