Bill and Joan Trusler interviewed by Jo Bath

Oral history interview with Bill and Joan Trusler conducted and recorded by Jo Bath in 2004, as part of the Time Tracks oral history collecting initiative. Duration: 1 hour 2 minutes. Shildon railway works, female rivet heaters in Second World War, colleagues, relationship with supervisors; Joan later worked for other factories Flymo lawnmower factory, Geest banana factory, worked until family, wages comparison at Newcastle Tea Company and for railway, gender pay gap; [00:05:45] journey to work, pay token, weekly wage; Bill’s father a riveter for railway, common in Shildon for sons to follow fathers in railway career; Bill first job tea boy at age 14; [00:10:15] work straight out of school; Second World War, Shildon Railway works, female staff, toilet/rest room, lack of break facilities; cats at the works; medical facilities, ambulance rooms at the works, safety, fire brigade (fire watchers); no bombs for Shildon surprisingly; blackout; no air raid warnings; [00:16:30] work at Geest banana factory, grading by colour, sorting bananas for shops, location of factory, ripening room, hard work; [00:19:45] Flymo lawnmower factory at Aycliffe; rivet heating was favourite job, riveting work; [00:22:50] leisure and activities, Bill played drums with dance band, boxing at gymnasium, dance rehearsal room, boxing championship, Darlington fight; [00:29:15] Railway Institute facilities and activities; railway unions, NUR; Christmas, summer holidays; marriage; where they went on holidays; [00:34:40] Shildon works, different shops, blacksmiths shop, repair, relationship between workers, love affairs and scandals during Second World War; using the works facilities to make tools for home; thefts at the works; [00:40:35] 1975 celebrations, Stockton and Darlington 150th anniversary, cavalcade; Railway Carnival, one year a Railway Queen from Shildon, crowning in Manchester; [00:44:40] spiders in Geest banana boxes; extreme weather, snow in winter 1947; stuck in Aycliffe no buses; Shildon Carnival used to be a big event, comparison since railway works closed; events at Shildon Carnival, running and boxing, agricultural show; [00:49:35] coal use at home, coal fires, coal merchants and horse troughs; Brusselton; engine houses; childhood, play in the street, Timothy Hackworth school, Tintacks; [00:55:00] Shildon shops, Mr Pitts coffee shop, Bennison paper shop, Gordons wallpaper shop, Hunter’s sweet shop, grocery shop, London and Newcastle tea shop; miners not known; pit chimney knocked down; father lost fingers in pit; [00:59:45] earliest childhood memories, Timothy Hackworth school, punishments [01:01:54] [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.