It's a bit hazy actually. I was going down a street I think and somebody said, oh the war's started, something like that, I can't ... and then the siren went didn't it, soon afterwards from what I can remember. That was a false alarm, they thought the war had just actually started straight away but it hadn't, well I mean it had more or less but nothing had happened. No bombs dropping, things like that. So you want me to go on from there do you?

How old were you?

I wasn't at work then, I think I was probably just left school. When I did leave school, at 14 years old we had to leave school those days, as I say I went to work at Teddy Toy Factory, it was called Teddy Toy, they must have made teddies there from the name of it, and then I did, they were making these haversacks for the army, air force, navy whatever it is, they used to have all these haversacks and I used to machine them and they put me on putting the buckles on and the blooming buckles, I didn't ought to say that did I, the buckles, they were so hard, this, the stuff that they used on it, then I said I, the needle went through my nail and I was, painful that was, I'll always remember that, very painful but still. And then after that, I suppose I must have got a bit fed up, we weren't directed not so much, not those days, what we had to do, not in the beginning of the war. And then, went on to my, went up to London in Bow and my aunt, stayed with my aunt and then got a job there working on air force jackets. Machining, making them. And I suppose I must have got a bit tired of travelling or, I stayed with them but used to go home weekends, but I must have got a bit tired of the job and I went back to mother.

Can you tell me what your working day was like.

Well usually it was about 8, I suppose we just did a normal day then, 8 till about 5, 6, I can't quite remember all back those years. But went back to mother's and went to work, I had to go to work of course, we all had to do our bit, and then went, oh yes, I went to mother's and then I went to Somerset didn't I, come down to Somerset from what - I've missed a bit have I, no I haven't, I went to Somerset visiting, visiting some friends that had been evacuated down to Glastonbury. Just for a holiday with my sister. Met my boyfriend, which became my husband then didn't he afterwards, and went home, then I came back again to Somerset after a while, stayed there because he was still here, he wasn't in the air force, not then, then he sort of, weren't working. Sterlings, no not Sterlings, not that one, I went to Ardents, working on these ...

Tell me about Ardents, what was Ardents?

They were making hearing aids, I don't know, I think it must have been for the forces, these, what d'you call it, like you've got on, earphones, that type of thing, I know it was a big thing. That was in, just like a barn sort of place, it was a farm, they converted. There wasn't many working there, I should say well about eight or something like that. Used to travel backwards and forwards to Glastonbury, to Westhay to get there.

Was it all women working there?

Women, and just the boss's men, the boss and his son. I think they'd come down from London and set up this place in Westhay.

So you'd come from the east end of London down to Somerset. Can you remember how different it felt?

Well no, not from the, we moved to Dagenham then, sort of, we all had to move from the east end, we had to get out from the east end and we went to Dagenham to live. That was when I went, that was after, I was in Somerset, when I did the Teddy Toy we'd moved out from then, you know, we lived in Dagenham then.

Why did you have to move out of the east end?

Well, we had to move out, they were getting rid of all the old sort of houses, I don't know why, why they did that. A lot of people had to move, they sort of got them out to the suburbs.

Was it country or not?

What, where I went? To Dagenham? Yes, it was fairly country then, I mean it's built up now.

When you came down here, was this very different?

Oh yes, definitely different.

Tell us about that that.

Well it was just, I mean, so different it was just one street up with shops wasn't it, and all the farms and the fields and things. Come down by train, used to think that was lovely, to have a journey on a train.

Had you seen any bombers going over at all?

Oh yes, we used to watch them going over.

From Dagenham or down here?

Well up there, up there, not here so much. They didn't have too much trouble, not here, did they.

So there was a sense of war happening.

Yes, oh yes. Because all our food got rationed didn't it.

Tell me about that.

We used to have about an ounce of tea I think per person, two ounces of sugar, about two ounces of cheese from what I can remember. Butter, well you, only didn't have much, about an ounce and an ounce of lard, cooking. Then we used to, we couldn't get any eggs, we used to have powdered egg, we used to get it in tins. One thing I remember, because we couldn't get fruit much and they used to use parsnips and put some banana flavour in it to give it, horrible isn't it, to give it flavour, but with this dried egg we used to make omelettes and scrambled egg and stuff like that.

Nice?

It was all right yes, from what I can remember, we managed to do things, we still lived, we're still here to tell the tale anyway aren't we. I can't remember, we used to have dried milk too, cos I never took sugar in my tea anyway so it didn't make much difference to me. Cos we used to use the produce from the garden, as I say we used to go and grow our own vegetables across the way and get potatoes and stuff, but you used to get the, all the neighbours say oh they've got oranges down in the fruit shop, down the road, so we'd all go and then we'd have to queue up and get oranges, and the same with bananas, and then we couldn't get any silk stockings and then somebody said oh they've got silk stockings in so-and-so's, I can't remember, I think it was Bloomers, the name of the shop, I can't remember. And we'd go down to get a pair of silk stockings. I can't remember what we wore other than that.

You didn't do that thing where you drew the line on your leg.

Oh no, I never did that, no I never did that. I can't remember that, we never went to hairdressers or anything like that, we used to just do our own hair and do a bit of stitching.

You came back to Dagenham after.

I came back to Dagenham yes, and went to work, the Sterling works where they made all components for the aeroplanes, and I was put on inspection. First of all it was around by the machines, we used to have to inspect what they'd done on these machines that they were turning, and then eventually I got shifted into one work room where they brought all the stuff and we had to sort of inspect them again to make sure that they were correct in the sizes and whatever these other things, what was it we were saying about these measurement things, caliper type of things, they had to be very, they had to be right.

Can you remember what the factory looked like, how big it was?

It was a fairly big one. All the workshops was down on one side and it was all like machinery, and they used to, they're turning out these things and it used to be like the milk sort of liquid coming through to when they was turning it, you'd get all the steel and that coming off or whatever it was was coming off where they was making these things, and then as I say we used to love it when we say oh, let's go and have a break, or somebody'll go and get them for you, bacon sandwich from the canteen, they must have got allowed a certain amount of rations or something to do this for workers I suppose, but we used to enjoy those, that sort of thing. We used to have to get on a cycle and get to the factory from where we lived.

What about air raids?

Oh yes, we had air raids. We used to, as I say we used to stay in the shelters, your tummy used to turn over when the air raids went, when it started, and we all used to rush down, well they had air raid shelters in the factory, we used to have to leave our work and go in sort of thing. We weren't far from Hornchurch you know, the airfield there, we're only like two underground stations from there so I suppose we got a lot from there.

Was the factory ever hit?

No it wasn't, not as far as I can remember, no. No that was lucky it didn't get hit. Where have we got to.

Tell us about when there were air raids and you were at home. What were you doing at night?

Oh well we'd just go down the shelters and we'd just sit and talk and things, I mean we just had beds in there, just went to sleep there at night as well. We just didn't bother to go to bed in our bedrooms, we just went down to the shelter straight away every evening, it got so boring getting up and going down there, we just, you know, getting up from your bed that we just went down into the shelter. I remember one morning, had an ant come up and it bit my toe, I'll always remember that.

What about social life?

Social life? You didn't get much social life you just used your family. My sister lived a few doors away in the same street and we just, well as I say you spent your time working and eating when you got home and things like that, and you just listened to the wireless and things and watched, well we didn't have television, we just sort of read the papers, it used to be lovely in the papers. We used to have a map and we used to pin up when the army was moving up from the desert and that, cos we were interested because George was out there see, he volunteered, he was out in the desert, so where have we got to now.

Tell me about George, you and George got engaged.

Oh yes, well he was already, he was already out in um, oh I can't, where did he say he's been, Bengazi and things like that, and then he wrote, he used to write quite a lot of letters, we used to get them all right. And he wrote and asked for us to get engaged. And he got his ring, so yes I agreed, and then I had to get my own ring and he got his out there. That was engagements for you in those days. But there we are.

And how long before you saw him?

It was three years nine months before he came home again. Three years nine months. And then, of course I had to arrange the wedding didn't I, got that all ready fixed up, see we didn't know when he was coming home, because us not being married, they sent the married people home first and the unmarried ones had to stay on longer. So I didn't know he was coming, then my father came in one night, come in from the docks, and he said, he'd come home from work, and he said, you know I've just seen George. I said oh don't be silly. I said you couldn't have. So he said yes, I've seen him on the back of a lorry. So I said oh no, I don't know, within about an hour he knocked at the door and it was him, he'd been taken to Hornchurch aerodrome. He didn't waste any time, and the funniest thing was see, he had a cousin that had been stationed, brought back there too, so they both came. Fancy knocking at the door, after my father said that and I said, I didn't believe him, they just brought him home. As I say, three years nine months was a long time wasn't it.

When did you get married?

Oh within a fortnight. We got married in Dagenham, nice little village then but it isn't now. It was snow on the ground, cold.

Was the war still going?

Oh yes, yes. It went on to the Japanese one was still going then. We got married and I spent my honeymoon in my sister's house which was a few doors away, she went down to my mother's and her and her husband stayed there while we just had a few days there. I think we went to a show, I think there was a show in London then (thunder storm). Then we would come back down to Glastonbury.

Can you tell us a little bit about, whilst he was away, almost four years, were you worried at any time?

Well yes, we did get worried a bit. About him being out there? Oh yes, we did worry a bit, but then you get immune to it, it's like when the bombs start dropping you think well, these doodlebugs used to come over and you used to think, oh well, if it's got my name on it, that's the sort of attitude you got, so be it more or less, because otherwise you lived on your nerves all the time. Then they had the rockets and that coming over, they were noisy things too, but we didn't like these doodlebugs because they used to just stop and you knew they were going to fall somewhere. Didn't fall very far away from you at times and I suppose what it was, they were trying to get the air fields, air field and that. I don't suppose we were too far away from the Thames, not then.

One day, there was a doodlebug wasn't there, fell near your house.

Oh yes. One day one dropped near our house and I got called from work because my mother was on her own and the house had been damaged, there was glass everywhere, the doors were all twisted and the wardrobes, all the furniture. It was a funny thing how they all seemed to be like that I can remember, I don't know, I suppose that was the crash of the doodlebug exploding and something like that, or tiles off our roof. And I can remember when my father got home from work that night, we got on the roof and I helped him put the tiles on, on the roof. I couldn't do it now. Then we used to dig across the road and put our vegetables in, seeds and grow some vegetables, potatoes and stuff. Food was all in short supply, anything was a bit helpful.

Tell me about your parents.

My parents? My father worked in the docks, he had to do home guard duty there as well. So he was away most, some nights, not every night but then they used to, it was a bit dodgy there for them, you know, with the boats and that. He was at East India Docks and then he'd have to go to Surrey Docks and places like that. Then when Dunkirk was on, he was up, I can't remember what dock, where would he be coming from Dunkirk, further up, up Grays, further up that way, helping with the soldiers and that, anyone coming back from France.

Can you remember how that felt?

Oh, it felt awful, we were worried about him being there. He was just away, he didn't come home once, until they sorted that all out, till they finished it, got all they could get back. But my mother, she was all right, she was out working, my sister was out working. I think my brother in law, he went, he got, went into the army towards the end of the war. He used to work in Briggs Bodies, motor factory. I don't know what they were doing, not then. He was a welder at the time.

Do you remember the moment when the war ended?

Oh yes. We all, we used to be friendly with somebody across, sort of at the back of us, and we all came out into our gardens and started dancing around and shouting and then we all sort of gathered during the evening and sort of did a big of dancing around and sing songs, it was just like a party atmosphere, that sort of thing. People were very excited, relieved I suppose more in a way. I didn't go up to London, not like a lot of people went up to the centre of London didn't they and celebrated. Come to a standstill haven't I. Got any more questions? No?

Just stop for a second I would think.

Well after we got married we came down here and they put him to Colerne, I suppose it was nearer than any other station for him, ready for demob. He got demobbed from there. I think he was up there nearly nine months. It was nice having him home, but it was a new life down here after living up in London. Cos the first year of our life, I was a bit homesick, missing the family. After that, I gave myself a talking to and just said well, that's what it's got to be like and that's it. His living's down here and that's where we are.

Did you easily forget the war, or was it hard?

Did I easily forget the war. Not really, because the Japanese war was going on wasn't it, there was still people out there. Yes, we didn't get, it was easier, you didn't feel so worried about getting bombed and things like that when it was finished, it was oh thank god we're not getting any more bombs. Can't remember much else, I suppose I was so pleased to get married perhaps, I don't know. It was a new life wasn't it.