91Čȱ¬

I used to live south west 8 (SW8) — that’s near London.

I was working in a sweet shop at the time and was called up — natural enough. I said I would like to go in the Land Army, but my Mother said “no, no, no” I thought “Oh dear, I’ll have to go on war work”, so I did that. I went into a flour mill, which was doing a man’s job — moving big sacks of flour. You had to get hold of them, tie them up, put them on a trolley pushed them down the chute, and had to get back in time to catch the next one and you had to put a bag on before you leave it. It was pretty hard going, but you never got men’s money.

I stayed there, and I was thinking of getting married to my partner Walter, as we’d been together so long, we had planned to marry in the October, but all of a sudden they called me up again saying that they’d like me to do a different kind of work. I went along to see them, and found out that they wanted to send me to Coventry. I said “I’m getting married in a couple of month’s time”, the man replied “Oh, well that’s different; we might be able to hang on until you get married and then we’ll call you in again.” I knew that when you get married you don’t get much leave when you’re married- you only get two days, but all the same we got married — we had a proper wedding but it wasn’t as good as it could have been. They rationed everything.

We got married and then Walter got called up — he went into the R.A.F and his first leave was re-location leave and he didn’t tell anybody — he didn’t even tell me.

I was working then — I’d left the flour mill and I’d gone on to a munitions place where they made big stanchions When he went he didn’t seem upset or anything, but the next day I had a letter he’d gone to Blackpool. I was in work, I was working the night shift, but I got up from the bench and I said “I want to go, I want to go and see my husband”, and they said “Oh, I don’t think you’re allowed to do that.” I replied “Well what’s going to happen? I’m going anyway!” So I got on the train and up to Blackpool I went. I got there in the early hours of the morning, and I went to an office and they said to me “Yes, he’s in a house just up the road there.” They gave me the number and I walked all up the front, which had all barbed-wire up it — I didn’t realise the sea was like that. When I got there, they told me he’d gone. But when I got back, they told me that he’d gone to Morecambe, which was obviously only a stone-throw away from where I’d been! So of course I went back up to Morecambe — I didn’t care a tuppence — I just wanted to see him. I stayed with him for nearly a week. The people with whom he was staying put me up quietly for nearly a week in the room. I had to keep myself to myself though. When I went out he was marching up the high street with the rest of them. It was nice, but touching.

From there I went back to work — I thought they’d tell me off but they didn’t care. I then went on welding. They were stanchions — they were about eight foot long and had four sides, with holes at the top and then you had a square bit to do too. You had get on a pulley, and pull these up and down. It was really hard going, but I enjoyed it.

I went out with my sister once to go on holiday. It was going to be the first holiday I’d ever had and we went to a farm. It was nice, because they felt really sorry for you as we weren’t having nearly as much food as them — with them being on a farm, so they treated us well - and even gave us some eggs to bring back.
These stanchions were made for the Bailey Bridges. The Bailey Bridges were things that would pull across the rivers, so that the tanks could go across.

One day I got hit in the eye — as I pulled the pulley up, this thing swung around on its chains and caught me in the eye — so of course I had a nice black eye and it was going through to the other one. I went to hospital, and they kept saying to me “Your husband’s come home and caught you hasn’t he” I kept replying “No he hasn’t!” It was quite a dig — I’ve still got a scar.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the 91Čȱ¬ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Dorothy Cottis and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Dot's stories:

• Red skies for miles
• I must have looked nuts!
• I had to collect my own flowers!
• â€Éř´Ç´Çłľ!”
• They went to work in slippers
• ”Ping Ping”
• You had to have a laugh

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