Kathy and Walter Nunn interviewed by Jo Bath

Joint oral history interview with husband and wife, Kathy and Walter Nunn, conducted by Jo Bath on 24 March 2004 as part of the Time Tracks oral history collecting initiative. Duration: 2 hours 3 minutes. [Disc 1, track 01] Kathy, born 1920. Walter, born 1919 or 1920. Kathy’s family background, childhood, moving around as a child due to father’s work as electrician in mines, school; moving to Shildon when married; [00:04:40] childhood, Shildon shows, Shildon shops, family in Shildon, uncle was street lamplighter; [00:09:45] family members worked at the pit, miners; sunk Datton pit; pumping station for pit waters; pit family; shared house with miners; hygiene, baths at pit before bath in front of fire; [00:14:20] types of food in childhood; Kathy’s job in canteen at Spennymoor, Second World War, wages; different types of jobs in mines, electricians, blacksmiths, unemployment in 1920s, interwar period; [00:20:40] washing day; manager at Ferryhill; colliery houses, knocker-up job, slate on house with time for waking up knock; [00:25:00] health, illness, doctor’s visit; compensation scheme for miners; accident; [00:30:00] Second World War, call to war effort; Sid Chaplin worked for Coal magazine then books on pit stories; pit closures; sounds of different pits; [00:35:00] extracting water from Datton pit; wood boats; Shildon mines and railways; friends intermingled; [00:40:00] changes in population in 1920s, people leaving, Leicester, poverty, 1926 the General Strike, the Great Depression, soup kitchens; coal from heaps; drinking cocoa; [00:45:00] labour party, secretary; National Coal Strike 1912; National Railway Strike 1911; Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; [00:50:00] workers from Wales coming to work at the mines; miners strike; observation on birds of prey seen in Shildon now (2004); [00:55:00] health and safety, vaccination, diphtheria, tuberculosis; Methodist area; 1936 slum clearance; points system for houses; health, tuberculosis, before National Health Service, ambulant nurse, cleaning the street, gangrene; labour party; [01:01:30] mining equipment re-used in homes, tokens in mines; trained welders; only after leaving the pit could they eat and sleep; [01:05:00] open cast mining, comparison with Egypt, Eldon Deep mine, safety; friendships [01:14:59] [end of disc 1, track 01] [Disc 2, track 01] Geest banana warehouse in Shildon, no sidings for railway traffic, redundancies in area [00:05:51] [end of track 01] [track 02] brief mention of torpedoes in Second World War [00:01:01] [end of track 02] [track 03] miners exemption to serve in Second World War, trades occupied in war; miners health, illness, pneumoconiosis from pit work; social classes distinctions in childhood, interwar period; [00:04:25] The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists novel, brother was a painter, died age 28, use of lead paint; [00:07:00] unions in 1930s; different jobs; socialist action; working with bricks; joining union; wages; [00:15:00] welders and fitters' practices; miners' strike; Arthur Scargill story; miners on strike; [00:20:00] few pits around here; miners movement; Hackworth society; works band; [00:25:00] boxing, football and bandsmen; practiced where Locomotion museum is now; Egyptian Gazette mentions Shildon as centre for football teams; instructor came from South Bank; Slaggy Island named after iron industry; [00:29:00] ships on Tees; Shildon sidings with wagons for different destinations; gas house; cattle slaughterhouses in goods yard; line by coal drops; [00:35:00] Photographs for history; tunnel was double line; George Reynolds dug water channel and tunnel; memorabilia [00:41:59] [end of disc 2, track 03] [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.