大象传媒

I was working as a housemaid at Etal Manor, Berwick-upon-Tweed for Lady and Lord Joicey in 1939 and my husband who I later married was footman there, latre to become butler, when the butler died. He left to fo in the navy later. I was working there a few years and left shortly after my husband.

My father was a miner at Blackhall colliery and we lived at Hesleden. Anyhow when France capitulated, the miners were paid off and he got a job at Catterick Camp working with W.O.D. on the tanks doing repairs etc.

We had to move and we went to live at Bellerby near Leyburn, N Yorkshire. I also wored there for the W.O.D. sorting and repairing army uniforms at Gorga Lines. After a while they asked the miners to go back. My father has to go into lodgings and come home at the weekends. My husband used to come home on leave. We got married on April 2nd 1942. He was stationed on the Orkney Islands, he was in Boom defence. Then later on he moved to Aultbay Rossshire. He came on leave now and then. When i got leave too, we eventually got a hoise to rent back at Hesleden and i went into lodgings till i got permission to go home to my parents.

I had to get war work again and got a job at Aycliffe Munitions Factory as an inspectoress of Naval Orders inspecting the ammunition (shells, etc). We worked 3 shifts, 6am - 2pm one week, 2pm - 10pm then 10pm - 6am. I had to walk to Blackhall station on some shifts as there was no transport from Heselden to Blackhall at times. It was very eerie walking from Hesleden down to the station in the dark and cold in the winter.

At one time John got moved to Greenock and i got permission to go and stay in Glasgow and had to get war work amd went to work at Rolls Royce working on Avro engines (pistons). I left as i was expecting twins. They were borm on the 19th September 1945. A boy and a girl, Christopher John and Susan Mary. John got demobbed in the October. He went to work for the Scottish Farmers Dairy Company as a storeman and we eventually got a flat and i went to live in Glasgow.

After a while we came back to live in Hartlepool, where my brother-in-law got him a job in Richardson and Westgarth engineering in Hartlepool, where he worked till he retired.

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