My Account Log in

1 option

Interview with female, husband and father were brickworkers, caretaker of Stewartby Village hall.

Women's Voices and Life Writing, 1600-1968 Available online

View online
Format:
Sound recording
Contributor:
Semeraro, Carmela, interviewer.
AM (Publisher), digitiser.
Bedfordshire Archives, owner.
Series:
Women's voices and life writing, 1600-1968.
Women's voices and life writing, 1600-1968
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Children.
Christmas.
Cooking.
Diseases.
Emigration and immigration.
Families.
Labor.
People with disabilities.
Work environment.
England--Ampthill.
England--Bedford.
England--London.
England--Southampton--Millbrook.
Genre:
Oral histories.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (1 audio file (54 minutes))
Production:
[England? : producer not identified], 2001.
Summary:
(00 mins)Childhood in Marston Pillinge. House was one half of a converted farmhouse with large rooms. (05 mins)Mother youngest of 13 children. Five sons took part in First World War and only one escaped unharmed (two died). (10 mins)Two uncles lived at home, plus granddad. Further extended family stayed at Christmas. No electricity or piped water in the house. Father and granddad grew own vegetables. (15 mins)Family house rented from London Brick Company. Father's work at brickyard. Pre-war plan to introduce fork-lift trucks, thwarted by Second World War. (20 mins)Loading and unloading hot bricks, after firing. Mother working on farms during 1939-45 war. To help feed hens, children gleaning for left-over corn ears, with mother, on local farm, after threshing. (25 mins)Washing day procedures before the age of electric washing machines. (30 mins)Collecting drinking water in buckets, using yoke, from neighbour's tap. Eventual extension of water pipe to give cold water inside the house. End of Side A Side B (00 mins)Husband was driver at London Brick. (05 mins)She became live-in caretaker for Stewartby Village Hall. London Brick Company (LBC) dinners, children's Christmas parties, village functions. (10 mins)Wedding receptions. Village hall "centre" of community. Change of ownership from LBC to parish council. Widowhood. Retirement. (15 mins)Living in Sir Malcom Stewart retirement home for ex-brickwork employees and their spouses. Husband used to drive lorry carrying Italian immigrant suitcases from the English ports up to Bedfordshire hostels. End of Side A. End of Interview.
Notes:
Title from publisher's website.
Archive reference: Z1205/061
From collection: Marston Vale Oral History Project 2001-2005
Electronic reproduction. Marlborough, Wiltshire : AM, 2024. Digitized from a copy held by Bedfordshire Archives and made available by AM.
Description based on publisher metadata (viewed March 18, 2024).
OCLC:
1427702400
Access Restriction:
Restricted for use by site license.

The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.

Find

Home Release notes

My Account

Shelf Request an item Bookmarks Fines and fees Settings

Guides

Using the Find catalog Using Articles+ Using your account