Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1205/171
  • Title
    Woman. Women's Land Army during Second World War. Grandfather was a wheelwright. Father was a blacksmith for Eastwoods brick factory. b. 05.06.1927 SIDE A (00 mins)Born and raised in Wootton, where both parents were born. (Paternal)Redman wheelwright business at Keeley Corner. Maternal grandfather was a builder. Only child. Lots of cousins. (05 mins)Process of making wooden wheels with metal rims. Also painters and sign writers. 3 brothers ran the business with grandfather. Firm established by great-grandfather. No ready-made farm carts at the beginning of twentieth century. Each was purpose-made for a particular farmer, and painted with his name on. They also made coffins for Abbotts funeral directors at Kempston. (10 mins)Description of blacksmith's shop and firm's yard. Process of fitting metal rims to wooden wheels. Her father was the painter. One uncle was the carpenter but all helped with the blacksmithying. (15 mins)Sawmill. Cutting up timber and seasoning it through storage. Land divided into three for each son, when grandfather died. Redman Wheelwrights finished in 1948 after a fire which destroyed the uninsured yard. Father moved to Eastwoods Flitton brickworks as a blacksmith. (20 mins)Arrival of Italian men to work in the brickworks in Marston Valley (1950s/60s). Short weekend holidays only with an aunty in Luton, as a child. Making coffins to fit a body. (25 mins)Corpses were kept in people's front rooms, for relatives to view, until the funeral (up to 3 days from death). Coffins transported on a bier (a trolley or flat base on four wheels, pushed by hand). As a child, had a go at sign writing but was not good enough. Parents in old age cared for by their children at home, not sent away to live in an old-folk's home. (30 mins)Dead bodies washed and laid out at home, by a local women(who was also often the local midwife). (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Social protocols for a "wake" - laying out of body, after death. Facing death in the days before funeral directors took the body away immediately from the home after a doctor had confirmed death. (05 mins)Personal experience of death. Local woman who attended both births and deaths. (10 mins)The professionalisation of midwifery and obstetrics. The sexual innocence or ignorance of young people in 1940s/50s. (15 mins)Sexual mores. Recording of births deaths, marriages in family bibles. (20 mins)Accommodating evacuees from London during war in Wootton. 2 women and 2 babies arrived but only stayed one night. Two schoolboys, aged 14, stayed with them for a while, then a schoolmaster and his wife and dog. Later, two airmen at a time stayed. One airman she introduced to a girlfriends and subsequently was the bridesmaid to them. Got pampered by the airmen. (25 mins)Mother having to cope with food being rationed. Mother later accommodated two Land Girls (3 when she, the daughter, joined). After leaving school, became a dressmaker. Took part in an amateur concert party entertaining people with songs and playing a piano accordion. After false alarm air raid when she thought her house might have been bombed by a doodle-bug, just the sound of an aeroplane engine, caused her to feint, her doctor suggested she leave the factory where she worked and get an outdoor job. The Women's Land Army was the only thing she could think of. She applied and was accepted. (30 mins)Sent to Hulcote Moor hostel, near Cranfield. Endless hoeing on market gardens, harvesting, potato picking and brussel picking. Fed calves. Delivered milk locally. (32 mins)End of Side B CONTINUED ON CS171C2 SIDE A (00 mins)Delivering milk to houses in cans and ladling out pints or half-pints to fill women's jugs. Was able to live at home at this stage, while still in Land Army. Working with Italian and German prisoners of war. Dressed up in long dress for evening dances with local airmen at Cranfield. (05 mins)Delivered milk in a van to Biddenham Dairies in Bedford. Worked on private farm at Box End, Kempston. Met future husband working there at the farm. Left after two years, since war had finished. (10 mins)Took part in the Bedfordshire Women's Land Army parade in front of princess Elizabeth in Bedford (14 Feb 1946). Made dresses for a concert that evening. Had tea with future queen in Corn Exchange. Attended first post-war re-union of Women's Land Army in Albert Hall, London and kept in touch with a few former land girls. (15 mins)Laments that "forgotten army" had little recognition for its contribution to the war, preventing the country from starving. Feels that the war experiences of new and different people from many places, helped to make them more tolerant. (20 mins)Feels that air travel is the biggest change in life since she was a child. Remembers going on a small, early, open-topped private plane on a "ten-bob flip" (short holiday excursion flight - say 15 mins). Accessible air travel has made the world seem smaller. (23 mins)End of Side A END OF INTERVIEW. Original Interview 85 mins
  • Date free text
    29 October 2002
  • Production date
    From: 1925 To: 2002
  • Level of description
    item
Hierarchy browser