Mary’s mam Polly (centre) with two of her friends during the war.

Polly worked in a biscuit factory for Macfarlane and Lang at the beginning of the war. She used to walk to work as a tram car journey would cost 2d. She remembers there being posters everywhere like, ‘Walls Have Ears’ and ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’ and huge barrage balloons floating over the city.

She enjoyed working in the biscuit factory a 1000 people worked there. You got paid by how many biscuits you made and at the end of the week you would get a big bag of broken biscuits on a Friday for only 1d. They made all kinds of biscuits but as the war progressed they only made plain biscuits like cream crackers. Eventually flour, marg, lard and eggs were in such short supply that some of the factory workers had to be made redundant. Some girls went into the forces or the land army but Polly was sent to work for Acme Wringers but like many other factories it had to change to war work and started making bomb fuses. Although they also kept making rubber, for which they were famous, she suspected it was now being made for the war effort. She worked 12 hour shifts, two weeks, day shift and two weeks, night shift but as they were classed as civilians they had to report for Air Raid Precaution duties. Most jobs in the city were being done by women they even ran the buses and the trams.

During the blackout you had to remember how many steps there were in your tenement as there were no lights on the stairs or landings. Air raid shelters were cold and damp but they were also good fun because of the community signing.

Polly