Ivy Gunter worked in timber supply during WWII in the Forest of Dean, in what would later become the Women’s Timber Corps. But before that economic opportunities for women in the Forest of Dean were more limited, and for many, like Ivy, it meant 'going into service' as a young teenager, sometimes a long way from home.
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Bob Bassett left Parkend School and started work at New Fancy colliery. His first job was above ground on the shaker getting rid of stone and dirt from amongst the coal. Later he worked underground. His father and brother were ostlers at New Fancy and here Bob describes helping with the horses at the pit above and below ground.
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Sheila Llewellyn's family moved to Cinderford when she was a girl. She went to a small private school in the town until she was sent to Bilson Primary School. Here she describes just passing the entrance exam for grammar school and how that coincided with it becoming maintained by the state and no longer accepting fee paying pupils.
The experience of leaving the Forest had a traumatic effect on Sheila and her friend when they went to teacher training college in Birmingham.
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Germany was ruined by the Second World War and in the Soviet occupied east, a young Margaret Phelps was humiliated by having no elastic in her knickers and decided she would be better placed to become a tailor’s apprentice. She used her tailoring skills when she came to work at Remploy in the Forest of Dean. Here she also talks about making uniforms for Russian officers who paid her with ‘Mahorka’, (tobacco) that she gave to her father.
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Many parents felt that job security lay in a good apprenticeship and a job for life that would follow. At the suggestion of his father Nigel Isaac embarked on an apprenticeship at Armstrong Sidley, but the factory closed after twelve months. For Nigel this gave him the chance to follow a career of his choosing.
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Valerie Matthews was educated at a small primary school in Ruardean and she found the move to a large secondary school a shock. She found after-school work at a bakery shop and here she describes how the characters who came to the shop helped make it a good place to work. She remembers one customer who asked for a very peculiar sort of tea...
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