Iris Holmes interviewed by Jo Bath

Oral history interview with Iris Holmes, conducted and recorded by Jo Bath on 16 February 2004, as part of the Time Tracks oral history collecting initiative. Duration: 42 minutes. Family background, father railway worker, Shildon works; Astraka fake fur factory, manufacturing clothes, employment, working conditions, routine, gender roles and division, pay; other factories, industries in Shildon; family context; pay; life in Shildon, leisure activities; reflections on work at Astraka, factory closure, unions, work benefits

Time Tracks, Shildon Railway Village Community Project was an initiative funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that encouraged members of the public to bring photographs and documents at Locomotion to form a community archive, when Locomotion museum was opened in Shildon, 2004. Over 50 oral history interviews were also recorded with members of the community. They shared their memories of Shildon as they knew it in their childhood and throughout their lives, from as early as the 1920s, as well as their work experiences in local factories and industries, including Shildon railway works.