Z1205/079

Male. Father was brickworker. Grew up in Stewartby village. b. 11.09.1935 SIDE A (00 mins)Childhood in Kempston. Grandparents. (05 mins)Father worked on farm and then for London Brick Company in Stewartby. Family moved into new company house in 1936 in Stewartby village. Schoolboy work on farm during holidays. (10 mins)Horse and tractor used on farm during war. Wartime overhaul of tanks in Stewartby by Bedford Engineering Department. Tanks made awful mess of Stewartby roads. (15 mins)Sever snowstorms of 1947. Stewartby cut off by snowdrifts. Ex-prisoners of war from hostel at Kempston Hardwick helped dig them out. Stewartby knot hole flooded severely. Brick production affected. Wartime schooling. Air raid shelters. (20 mins)Stewartby village built in stages (1926/7, 1936, 1951/2). Close knit community. Social and sporting facilities. Father was driver for brickworks. He was transferred to the Ministry of Supply during Second World War. After the war, drove both ambulances and fire engines for company. (25 mins)Long hours at brickworks for father. Attending school in Stewartby. Left school at 15 (new school leaving age). Apprenticeship in engineering firm W.H.Allens, Bedford. Cycled to work. (32 mins)End of Side A (00 mins) Lack of career advice at school. Mechanically minded. (05 mins)Summers spent as schoolboy at company's village swimming pool, after school. Swimming galas. Cricket matches between various brickworks. Sunday school held in Stewartby village hall. Wootton Parish Church used by most until purpose-built United Church built in Stewartby (other attended Methodist "tin tabernacle"). Married in 1960. Mother sang in Stewartby church choir. (10 mins)Uniqueness of Stewartby as modern company village (like Duke of Bedford's estate cottages but concentrated and with better facilities). Changes over lifetime: using "green belt" for houses and disappearance of enormous numbers of brick kiln chimneys. (15 mins)Move to Kempston after marriage. Changes in the appearance of Kempston as new buildings appear. Remembers disappearance of Millbrook chimneys, which motorists had used as an indicator of approaching MI exit (Junction 13). (20 mins)Long-term changes to Vale as new trees grow. Landfill. Need for more use of trains to bring waster closer to area to avoid heavy road use by lorries. (23 mins)End of Side B END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 60 mins

4 December 2001

From: 1930 To: 2001

item

London Brick Company,
Allen, W.H.

brick worker, farm worker, schools, tractors, World War Two, snow, prisoners of war, lodging houses, floods, air raids over UK, fire engines, ambulances, lorry driver, wages/conditions, apprenticeship, swimming, cricket, Sunday Schools, United Reformed Church, Methodist Church, choir, chimneys, M1, landfill, lorries, KEMPSTON, STEWARTBY, Kempston Hardwick, WOOTTON, MILLBROOK