Joan Ellwood interviewed by Jo Bath

Oral history interview with Joan Ellwood conducted and recorded by Jo Bath in 2004 as part of the Time Tracks oral history collecting initiative. Duration: 48 minutes 54 seconds. Joan was the daughter, sister and wife of railway workers. Railway family. Family background, parents and their employment; own career start in 1949, post office, career choice, options and reasons, working hours, work clothes, normal day work [00:05:00]; living with family, pocket money; marriage 1961; leisure, entertainment, dance, Darlington, Johnny Dankworth and other big bands; went and came back on train; met husband at Majestic Darlington [00:08:00]; teenagerhood, World War 2, dances at scout hall, youth choir concerts; wartime, air raids and shelters [00:13:00]; Father work at North Road Darlington, worked for 51 years; husband work at Shildon forge, worked for 37 years at railway works, health and safety, accidents, deafness forge workers, working hours 07.30- 17.00 [00:18:00]; brother was engine driver, went through the grades, driver at Thornaby, had accident on a bike, end of driver career; house full of clothes being cleaned, smell of the works, showering at works was compulsory; love for Shildon, personal health, stroke recovery, community support [00:22:00]; differences in Shildon over the years; town square and park; future uncertain; pigeon droppings in town and on bandstand; worst time when works closed, not completely recovered; protest against closure in 1984, to London on trains, marched over London Bridge, hope it would keep going; used pass to go on holiday to Brighton; works holiday 2 weeks [00:29:00] looked for another job not found one; Tuesday market at Doncaster; Shildon’s market closed during war; went at 6 a.m. to queue for biscuits in Shildon; Father’s allotment, grew vegetables, participation to agricultural show, leek club [00:35:00]; 1975 celebrations, Stockton and Darlington 150th anniversary, cavalcade [00:39:00]; travelling to Redcar with pass, journey details with trolley, visit to Redcar; using travel pass with companion after suffering stroke; went to Newcastle at Christmas; did not like using trains in dark [00:45:00]; Shildon in 1975, busier but not too crowded, works were open, visited forge where her father worked, guided tour, creation of Hackworth Museum; enjoyed blacking grates and making beds; thought the forge was like Black Hole of Calcutta, father was proud to work there [00:48:54] [end of interview].

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.