Interview with female London Brick Co. office worker & Secretary of the Stewartby Homes Trust

  • Women's Voices and Life Writing
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Title
Interview with female London Brick Co. office worker & Secretary of the Stewartby Homes Trust
Interviewer
Semeraro, Carmela
Document Type
  • Oral history Recording
Date
11 Jul 2001
Interview Date
11 Jul 2001
Biography
The interviewee was born 27 June 1939. Her father worked for fifty-two years in Marston Vale brickworks in, Ridgemont, Stewartby. He would cycle everywhere. Her paternal grandmother was in Bedford almshouse. Meanwhile, her maternal grandparents are in Llanfair PG, Wales. As an infant, she was brought up in Wales with her mother and grandparents, but was evacuated during the Second World War. At this point in her life, she could only speak Welsh and attended a Welsh infant school. Her father returned from the army when she was six. She recalls her family living in a one-bedroomed house in Wootton. Her family moved to Stewartby when she was eleven. The house was new to the village, with the village having many leisure amenities such as a sports field and grandstand with an open-air swimming pool. She enjoyed swimming and had a swimming teacher. Leaving school at fifteen she began working at an estate agent in Bedford. Not long after, she moved to Meltis to learn comptometer operation. She then joined London Brick Company, having put her name down on leaving school. Working at the accounts office at Stewartby Brickworks for two years, she married her husband in 1958. She had a daughter, born in 1960. They lived in Bedford and moved to a house in Stewartby when their daughter was 18 months old. She recalls baby clinics and nursery school. When returning to work, she started the role as statistics secretary for the Managing Director, of London Brick Co. She left Brickworks in 1984. She began working for Trust, in retirement. She reflects on the changing landscape and lives in Marston Vale.
Length (minutes)
60
Copyright and Source Archive
Material sourced from Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service