Interview with female from brickmaking family and Land Girl in Women's Land Army during Second World War

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Interview with female from brickmaking family and Land Girl in Women's Land Army during Second World War
Interviewer
Semeraro, Carmela
Document Type
  • Oral history Recording
Date
7 Sep 2001
Interview Date
7 Sep 2001
Biography
She was born on 17th July 1923 in Peterborough and moved to Marston Moretaine at the age of 8 for her father and grandfather's work. Her grandfather had been Works Manager at a brickworks in Peterborough, and then at the Marston Valley brickworks, her father took over as Manager as well. Her grandfather retired in 1939 after working all his life in the brick industry. Most of her family worked in the brickworks at some point. Her great-grandfather was a stable hand in Ely. Her father went from earning 5 pounds a week to 25 pounds when he began working in Marston. He cycled to work from Peterborough until the brickworks built houses for the employees to live in in Marston. As a child she went to magic lantern slide shows, and later, she went to dances at the village hall. During the war, the brickworks became a storage depot for the Royal Army Service Corp. She worked in the canteen at the brickworks, then the munitions factory at Elstow, then joined the Women's Land Army, where she worked on farms alongside prisoners of war. She witnessed the arrival of the crew of a crashed Lancaster bomber.
Length (minutes)
40
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service