Z1205/010

Female brickworks driver, with Marston Valley Brick Company. b. 21.8.1922 Side A - (00 mins) Born in Aspley Guise. One brother. Mother from Purley. Father from Bletchley. Grandmother was a cook. Grandfather was a gardener. - (9 mins) Father - railway signalman, ending with 25 years at Ridgmont Station. Mother - housewife. School in Aspley Guise & Woburn Sands until 14 yrs. Then work as machinist for dressmaking firm until 1939. - (10 mins) Rates of pay in late 1930s. Joined Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as trainee woman driver for army. Training in Northampton. Posted to York & took exams in car mechanics - (15 mins) One of only 7 (out of 70) women to pass driver's test, in Camberley, Surrey. Worked on ambulances based at Oxford hospital, serving army barracks, attached to First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. Made pregnant by Canadian fianc who walked out on her, when she was expecting her son. Returned to parents in Aspley Guise. 6 weeks after birth, joined Marston Valley Brick Company as driver. - (20 mins) Hard work unloading bricks she had delivered. After 6 month trial, paid equal wages with men. Two loads of bricks a day. Also drove lorries commandeered by the Army during war. - (25 mins) 2500 bricks carried on her lorries. Everything loaded and unloaded by hand. Hair-raising, driving lorries around trams in London. Delivering secret containers (later found to be D-Day supplies) to Mildenhall, from Old Warden. - (30 mins) Father concerned when she arrived home late (midnight) after unspecified trip - (32 mins) END OF SIDE A CS010C Content Summary continued Side B - (00 mins) Male drivers treated the two women drivers at Ridgmont well. Numerous drivers, numbers increasing throughout her time there, as productivity increased - (5 mins) Bricks "trained" to London for further distribution by lorry. Brickbats (broken bricks) taken from Ridgmont to West Drayton for building the runway at Heathrow Airport. Deliveries also to Stansted aerodrome where American forces were based during the war. - (10 mins) Driving children of brickworkers, from Brogborough estate, to school in Ridgmont, after the war, in makeshift lorries. Driving German prisoners of war from Little Brickhill and Ampthill hostels to Marston Valley Brick Co. works at Ridgmont. After the Second World War, driving foreign workers from hostels to brickworks - Germans, Yugoslavs, Italians and Poles. - (20 mins) Brickwork drivers entered for Bedfordshire Safe Driving Award Competition. After 16 years driving, transferred to Despatch office until 1981, when Ridgmont brickworks closed - a total of 38 years with Marston Valley Brick Company. - (25 mins) Work done in transport office at brickworks - reaction to closure and demolition of Ridgmont brickworks. Early retirement. Missing former colleagues. - Original interview (32 mins END OF SIDE B)

9 May 2001

From: 1920 To: 2001

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Marston Valley Brick Company Limited, Aspley Guise School, Aspley Heath School, employment of women, driver, cook, gardener, Ridgmont station, signalman, machinist, housewife, World War Two home front, Auxiliary Territorial Service, nurses, Canadians, bastardy, Americans, airports, Ridgmont School, prisoners of war, Germans, Yugoslavs, Italians, Poles, road safety, ASPLEY GUISE, Purley, Bletchley, RIDGMONT, WOBURN SANDS, ASPLEY HEATH, Northampton, York, Camberley, Oxford, London, Mildenhall, OLD WARDEN, West Drayton, Heathrow, Stansted, BROGBOROUGH, Little Brickhill, AMPTHILL