Title
Lutterworth Munitions Factory
Subject
Lutterworth Munitions Factory
Description
Gertrude Annie Moore outlines the conditions working in a munition factory in Lutterworth during the 1940s.
Creator
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Source
EMOHA
Publisher
EMOHA
Date
1988
Contributor
Photograph courtesy of Lutterworth Museum. To use seek permission from https://lutterworthmuseum.com/
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/
Format
.mp3
Type
Oral History
Duration
1 min 56 sec
Transcription
Interviewer: Can you remember the coming of World War Two?
Miss Moore: Yes, because we changed over to a munition factory and I worked there for four years. We worked shifts, we used to have to be there some mornings at six in the morning ‘til afternoon and then again in the evening, ten ‘til six in the morning. Three shifts we had and we kept the clock going, you know. Detonators for bombs I started with, it was horrible. It was a great round thing and you’d got to keep putting these detonator things in, and there was a big rubber thing that kept pressing them down, you know, I can’t explain it, it was so queer. There were some great round rings and you had to put the detonators in these things and it was all gas, ever so hot, and it hardened the metal, you see. And it was terrible while you sat there putting them in, you didn’t do it for long because it was too hot.
Interviewer: What could you do to protect yourself, what safety…
Miss Moore: Well there was something in front of you. Blue flames came up you see and these things went through them.
Interviewer: And it was still mostly women?
Miss Moore: Oh yes, pretty well. Well they came from everywhere to Lutterworth during the war, Wales and everywhere. They used to come about 40 at a time, you see, and then change over and another lot come.
Interviewer: What, and then they’d go back?
Miss Moore: Yes, and then they’d come from somewhere else. We had the girls from the bulb fields quite a lot, in Lincolnshire.
Interviewer: Where did they all stay?
Miss Moore: Well they got lodgings where they could, and some had to lodge in Leicester, just where they could get.
Interviewer: Did they have to do this…
Miss Moore: Oh yes, you didn’t say no, there was no picking your job in them days. Not unless you were lucky.
Miss Moore: Yes, because we changed over to a munition factory and I worked there for four years. We worked shifts, we used to have to be there some mornings at six in the morning ‘til afternoon and then again in the evening, ten ‘til six in the morning. Three shifts we had and we kept the clock going, you know. Detonators for bombs I started with, it was horrible. It was a great round thing and you’d got to keep putting these detonator things in, and there was a big rubber thing that kept pressing them down, you know, I can’t explain it, it was so queer. There were some great round rings and you had to put the detonators in these things and it was all gas, ever so hot, and it hardened the metal, you see. And it was terrible while you sat there putting them in, you didn’t do it for long because it was too hot.
Interviewer: What could you do to protect yourself, what safety…
Miss Moore: Well there was something in front of you. Blue flames came up you see and these things went through them.
Interviewer: And it was still mostly women?
Miss Moore: Oh yes, pretty well. Well they came from everywhere to Lutterworth during the war, Wales and everywhere. They used to come about 40 at a time, you see, and then change over and another lot come.
Interviewer: What, and then they’d go back?
Miss Moore: Yes, and then they’d come from somewhere else. We had the girls from the bulb fields quite a lot, in Lincolnshire.
Interviewer: Where did they all stay?
Miss Moore: Well they got lodgings where they could, and some had to lodge in Leicester, just where they could get.
Interviewer: Did they have to do this…
Miss Moore: Oh yes, you didn’t say no, there was no picking your job in them days. Not unless you were lucky.
Interviewer
C. Hyde
Interviewee
Gertrude Annie Moore
Location
Lutterworth, Leicestershire
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