Z1205/108

Female. Housewife, married to brickworker. b. 14.05.1920 Side A (00 mins)Born at St. Neots and moved when aged 7 or 8 to Eynesbury Bridge. 5 girls and 2 boys. Father was a bricklayer. (05 mins)Paternal grandfather lived in Queen's Park, Bedford. Bricklaying was in the family. She didn't work outside the home until the Second World War. She helped her mum in the house. Two brothers went into the armed forces. (10 mins)Conscripted to work in sorting and packing in a laundry. People from the middle class would send their domestic washing, collected from their houses and delivered afterwards. 12-14 girls employed at the Hale Laundry, St. Neots - the only one in town. (15 mins)Transferred to a (Belle Vue) laundry in Kempston. Prior to that, attended the Girls' Friendly Society. First met husband-to-be with a gang of girls and boys in St. Neot's High Street. He worked at the brickworks. Courted for four or five years. When her married sister went off "with a Yank" during the war, she wrote to the husband, who was a prisoner of war, pretending to be her. When the husband returned, his wife was there to meet him and they continued with their married life, with no one in the family mentioning it. Later in life, he told her that he knew she wasn't his wife. (20 mins)Her husband came from Gamlingay. Married in 1944, aged 24. Lived in Kempston. Husband insisted in her not working, as soon as she was released. Reference to a brick worker losing his hand through an accident on the press at Eastwoods. (25 mins)Became a dressmaker, working from home. Husband lost his hand at the brickyard. He then became a drawer on the kiln. He got his presentation clock for 50 years' service with London Brick Company. (30 mins)Reads out inscription. (Sound of clock ticking) (32 mins)End of Side A END OF INTERVIEW Original Interview 30 mins

12 March 2002

From: 1915 To: 2002

item

Eastwood Flettons Brick Company,
Marston Valley Brickworks,
London Brick Company

brick worker, housewife, married woman, brickmaker, World War Two, HOUSEHOLD, laundries, wash houses, class issues, Americans, prisoners of war, letters, adultery, injury, clocks, dressmaker, employment of women, Eynesbury, St.Neots, Bedford Queen's Park, Kempston Belle Vue Estate, Gamlingay, KEMPSTON