LDHS Oral History Interview10A
Gladys Christopher
| Interviewee: | Gladys Christopher |
| Interviewer: | Pauline Jones |
| Technician: | Jenny Houston |
| Length of interview: | 58:28 |
| Date of interview: | 17th May 2007 |
AI Summary
Gladys Marion Christopher
Munitions Worker, Farmer, Musician, Community Leader
Born in Michaelchurch Escley in 1916, Gladys grew up on a local farm and attended the village school, remembering strict lessons, long desks, and the warmth of her early teachers.
During the Second World War, she volunteered at the Rotherwas Munitions Factory in Hereford, working as an Examiner handling TNT under the secrecy of the Official Secrets Act. She travelled daily on the “white shift” bus with neighbours, recalling lively journeys filled with wartime songs. She witnessed the aftermath of the factory bombing, though details were hidden from workers at the time.
In 1944, Gladys left the factory to marry Bill Christopher, a local farmer. Her wartime wages helped her buy five cattle to start their life together. She remembered VE Day in Michaelchurch as a joyful village celebration despite rationing.
A gifted musician, Gladys played piano, organ, and harmonium from childhood and became deeply involved in chapel life, Sunday School teaching, and local choirs. She competed in eisteddfods across the region and helped sustain the area’s strong musical traditions.
Late in life, she attended the unveiling of the Rotherwas Women’s Memorial, finding her name among those who served. The moment brought back memories of friends, community, and the thousands of women whose contributions were long overlooked.
Full Transcript
My name is Gladys Marion Christopher. I was born in New House, Michaelchurch Escley. I was born April, 21st 1916. I now live at Rockfield House, Michaelchurch Escley. During World War 11, I worked in the munitions factory at Rotherwas, Hereford, as an examiner. A lot of people were called up but I wasn’t because I lived on a farm. My cousin lived with us and he wasn’t very strong so he didn’t want to go to the army. He thought he would be called up . I didn’t mind doing something so I went to the Labour Exchange as it was called then, in Hereford. There I volunteered to go to the Munitions Factory in Rotherwas and was told that they needed people there quite badly and as I had volunteered I was told that I could have an Examiner’s job which I didn’t think was very fair as I hadn’t had any training at all and I hadn’t done any practical work before either. Anyway, I went and the first day I was put to work with two people and we stuck friends together and I was even talking to the one who is ninety-six this morning. She lives at Garway Hill. The other one, one Christmas I had no Christmas card so I assumed she had passed away. I can’t say much about what happened in the factory, we never can, not even now because we signed the Official Secrets Act. I have got a book all about it now and I now know how many people were killed when it was bombed. I didn’t know at the time….either 17 or 27. But other people were killed when explosions happened because we were working with T.N.T. which was very dangerous. It was bombed as the night shift were going off and the day shift were coming on. I caught the bus here at the bottom of the garden at halfpast six in the morning and when we got to Belmont the police stopped us . They didn’t tell us why but they said ‘You can’t go on to the factory for some time’. Not long after we saw a German aeroplane. But we never knew while we were there how many were killed. The bomb wasn’t on the section where I worked so we didn’t see anything of it at all as the factory spread over quite an area. I left the Munitions to get married because if you married a farmer you were exempt because they needed farmers very badly in those days….different story these days, I’m afraid. I went to Rhydunnog Farm Michaelchurch Escley and farmed there with Bill . I left the munitions in April, 1944. I had been working there for a good three years I would think. I enjoyed the experience because I had never worked with people before. When I left school I went to help my father on the farm as I was the only child. It was good for me to work with people as I didn’t know a lot of people and there were a lot of people there. I’m sure this was the same for a lot of the women who worked at Rotherwas. The friend who lives at Garway Hill, she was in Bournemouth working as a parlourmaid although her home was in Herefordshire. And another person I remember had a similar job working in a gentlefolks’ house. Some people working at Rotherwas were there in the First World War. It wasn’t that long really from 1918 to 1939. When I went to the Labour Exchange I wanted to go to the Rotherwas factory so that I could live at home with my parents. I didn’t want to go in the forces. The factory was very big and thousands worked there. It was very regimented there. We had to clock on and we were searched almost every day. My friend from Garway Hill was going somewhere straight from work…we hadn’t to have any metal on us…. hairclips, rings, watches, nothing metal. Anyway, she was going into Hereford and she wore something with a zip at the back which she thought she might get away with. She was searched but she got away with it! She was telling me this yesterday and she’s ninety-six! We used to get to the factory on the bus. There was a red shift, a white shift and a blue shift. The one round here was the white shift which I was on. The bus went round the three shifts and you could get it morning, afternoon and evening. The morning bus went at six from out here.The afternoon shift bus left at one thirty and the evening bus left at six-thirty. That was the longest shift…almost twelve hours. All the people round here worked on the white shift. The bus used to come up from Ewyas Harold and go down the Bryn, up to Longtown then to Llanveynoe, New House, where Cissie James used to live. And then back down to the Crown then to here, Michaelchurch. Three people got on at Michaelchurch. Quite a lot got on at the Crown and up at LLanveynoe. The bus was just for people at the munitions factory. The bus people were W.E.Morgan. The bus picked up quite a few people at Newton, Abbeydore, Kerry’s Gate and out by Wormbridge Church. The bus was full by the time we got to Wormbridge. The journey was very jolly. We used to sing. …’Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye’ ….all the old wartime songs. We used to have concerts at the factory while we were having our lunch….. ‘Workers’ Playtime’ kind of thing. We had Anna Neagle there to sing for us…..quite famous people.I don’t think it was ever broadcast from there. I was glad I was there. After I got married I missed the company! But I kept in touch with a lot of people. I’m glad that I chose that and not any of the Services. I could have chosen the Land Army but I was going to marry a farmer and I was working for my dad….It wasn’t like the First War when they took a lot of people from the farms. In the churchyard at Michaelchurch there is no Second War memorial as the men were left on the farms and didn’t fight. They were left to get on with growing food . The money at the munitions was very good…I got five pounds a week and that was fantastic money. We were very rich! I saved quite a lot to get married. I lived at home and didn’t pay anything for board and lodging. When I got married I bought five cattle for my husband to put on the farm, which was a help in those days. I was at home for V.E.Day. It was a
wonderful occasion. We had a party at Michaelchurch and had a wonderful time. I think nearly everyone was there. All the children were waving flags and we had a wonderful tea up at the school. We managed in spite of the rationing. We had games out in the field opposite. Very exciting that was. We were aware of what was going on in the wider world. We only had radio then, no television of course. We also had newspapers. We used to listen to the radio. There was a bomb dropped at Dorstone and the nearest here that I know of was dropped at Pandy. Bombs were also dropped at Hereford. Of course we had the black-out and couldn’t show any light. I went to Michaelchurch Escley School. It was burned down in 1938. It was re-built on the same site. I was just five when I started school. I went at Easter and my birthday was in April. I used to walk to school. I was quite safe as I only had four little fields to cross from New House where we were living. There were some girls from the farm up above our farm and they called for me every morning. They’d come to the bottom of the garden and call out “Coo-ee”, and I’d be ready. When I was older and my mother let me come up the road from school we had lots of adventures. ….pinching apples out of people’s fields and things like that. The boys would pull up swedes to eat on the way home. Some of them walked a few miles to school, they’d be hungry, I think. I remember my first day at school quite well….I wanted to go to school. My mother prepared me for school. When they were working in the fields she’d tell me to wait by the gate for them coming home from school because they’d make a fuss of me. I longed to go to school. I remember my teacher, Miss Howard, very well. She was from St.Margaret’s, a local person. In the summer holiday she invited us all over to her house for tea. We had games in the field at St.Margaret’s. It was lovely. We didn’t have her for very long as she moved on and moved away to teach in larger schools, I suppose. There were two teachers at the school….they were all called Infants in the one room, and then when we were seven we went into the Big Room. The school was for children aged five to seven and seven to fourteen. I was always very interested in geography. I remember the map of the world and the parts of the Commonwealth that were pink…and the blackboard and chalk. We had long desks in those days and we sat on benches. We had ink in ink-wells. One of the boys…I had two plaits and he put one in the ink-well. My mother wasn’t very pleased. He was a local boy…he’s not with us any more. When we were seven we did more subjects. We didn’t do much history. We used to repeat things to learn them….I still know my tables…. of course they don’t learn their tables today, not like we used to, not round here they don’t. When we were seven we moved to the next room, but if we weren’t ready, we’d stay down. We had a sort of little exam. and if we weren’t ready we’d stay down another year. I remember people who’d stay down…some of them didn’t get very far up, I’m afraid. It was hard for them to have to stay down with the younger children,but that happened then. I suppose the Headmistress had so many pupils that she kept more in the Primary part. We were split into standards, not classes …Standard 1, Standard 2, Standard 3, Standard 4, Standard 5 and Standard 6. If you got to 6 you were doing well. I think they call them classes now. The teacher that came when I was ten, stayed at Michaelchurch for thirty years. She left when my son was ten. Her name was Miss Isherwood. She was from Manchester. When she came here she had a companion. She’d been through the First World War and she had shell-shock and she shook very badly. When a vacancy occured, she applied for the job and got it, then there were the two of them in the school, which was lovely. Her name was Miss Halliday. She was from Birkinhead. They both lived in the Schoolhouse. All the teachers then lived in the Schoolhouses. I I was passably good at schoolwork. I enjoyed it…I lovedschool, I was never kept down, anyway. I cried when I left. My best subjects were maths, English and geography. I wasn’t very good at sport. We did quite a bit. We played cricket and I hated it. I can remember feeling that ball now. I wasn’t too keen on any sport really. Strangely enough, I didn’t mind P.E.. I also quite liked cross-country but we didn’t have it very often because that took us out of school. Last Friday we went to a ceremony connected to the munitions factory. It was very interesting. When we got there it had almost started because someone we were waiting for was a little late. But anyway, we were there in time to see the ribbon cut. It was a fourteen foot high granite pillar. It had all the women’s names….I didn’t see any men’s names…well not all the women who worked there…It said some of the women who’d worked there. Not all the people would be alive now…and not everyone had someone like my granddaughter who knew about it. It was wonderful to be able to go.I shall always be thankful…The names on it were all sent in as they didn’t have any proper records. There are a lot of women that I remember and their names weren’t on it. I suppose they didn’t have anyone to tell them about it…It’s quite sad…there should have been thousands more there…. This is a permanent memorial that everyone can go and look at. It’s quite near the road, the straight mile, you can see it when you are driving down the straight mile. Yes, everyone can go and see it. It says: ” In memory of the women who worked at the Munitions Factory during the war.” There were some taller people in front of me but I managed to find my name. It was rather sad in some ways because it brought a few tears to some people….although it’s a long time ago…over sixty years. Yes, it was well worth going to and we can go again, of course, that’s the best part of it. There was no one at the ceremony that I remember. My friend, who’s ninety-seven, expected to see people there that she knew. But I said that we wouldn’t see anyone we knew because people alter so much. We chatted to each other quite a lot, and we were given tea afterwards. We went down the road to a cafe where we had tea. It was all provided and we didn’t have to pay anything. That was lovely as a lot of people came to chat then….”Where did you work? What shift were you on?” That was lovely. Some young people said their mother was gone but she’d worked there. I enjoyed it very much. The ceremony was broadcast on “Hereford and Worcester” but I haven’t heard it. There were lots of cameras around. I haven’t heard of it being on the “Midland News” or anything. I shall go back and see it again. I didn’t take a camera but Hannah did. I have a friend in London…she’d have loved to have been there but she’s too poorly. Hannah took a photograph of her name with the rest of us standing around, so that will be nice for her. Some of the names on the memorial brought back memories….of course there were three shifts…No-one was called by their Christian names then. I was Miss Phillips and my friend was Miss Benjamin and my other friend was Miss Howells….not unless you got to know them pretty well. It was very formal. On the other hand we still had quite a bit of fun. three shifts…morning, afternoon and evening.
Well I did still help on the farm a lot because my father was ill. We had to milk on Sundays as well as on weekdays, but the Sundays I was free to go, I went. We had little choirs then. Most chapels had little choirs. I went to Upper Maescoed Chapel. We went round other chapels and helped with little concerts and things they had . We used to go on our bikes and we couldn’t have lights because of the blackout. When we got there it was all in darkness because of the blacked-out windows. We used to enjoy these things because of all the troubles we heard on the radio. Sometimes I went to two services on a Sunday if I wasn’ tworking at the factory…and always Sunday School…. I was teaching at the Sunday School. We had maybe thirty or forty children there. Nowadays we have seven of a Sunday. I don’t teach now, but I play the piano or organ at the moment because there is no-one else who can play. We have prayers and Bible readings and Bible stories. And then they draw pictures and sometimes they listen to a tape. We didn’t do that years ago because we didn’t have any electricity. Once a year we had a Sunday School trip to the seaside. That was wonderful. We used to go by bus. But the first trip I remember was by train from Vowchurch to Weston Supermare. We went through the tunnel. We all got ourselves down to Vowchurch and went on the Golden Valley Line to Pontrilas then changed and went straight through to Weston. We went to Barry Island and Porthcawl, Aberystwyth, Rhyl, Tenby amd Minehead …all by bus. We loved it. We used to sing on the way there and back. I liked Aberystwyth best because of the mountains. It was quite wild in places. We don’t have a trip now because everyone has a car and the children are taken to all these places. I played the piano, harmonium and organ. I was ten when I started. I was taught by Mrs.Shaw who played the organ at Michaelchurch Church. She lived at the Bridge Inn, Michaelchurch. I lived about two miles away which wasn’t very far to go. I would walk down there and later on I rode my bike. She was wonderful. She even played at my wedding. At home we had an organ. It was my mother’s. I had a piano for my thirteenth birthday. So I was learning the piano three years before I had a piano. I practised on the organ at home. I didn’t take any exams. Before I left school I was playing for the Sunday School and for people to sing at anniversaries. We used to have a choir. We used to sing in parts but now its mostly in unison.Upper Maescoed Choir Started when I was sixteen or eighteen. I joined it straight away. My two cousins were in it. I sang contralto. We read music if we could otherwise those who couldn’t were taught their parts. It was quite difficult.We played their parts to them and they had to learn it off by heart. The choir had about sixteen members. Sometimes we borrowed one or two from other chapels. We used to go ound singing at Circuit concerts. We sang mainly hymns. The choir in Longtown started after the war around 1950. Mr Crowte became Headmaster at Longtown and he and his wife were very interested in music. They went to the Baptist Chapel in Longtown and they gathered young people together. We got to hear of it and went along. It got to be quite a big choir…about forty people. This was not a particular church choir…there were church and chapel people in it. We sang mainly religious works. …”All in the April Evening”, that type of thing. Quite hard pieces. I’d never sung anything like that before. All I’d sung was from our hymn books, particularly from Sankey “Hymns and soloes”. It was an adventure. We used to compete in eisteddfods….Longtown, Cwmdu, Llangynidr, Pandy, Kington. They used to go on til past midnight. There were so many entries and everybody enjoyed it, they didn’t mind it being the early hours of the morning. I remember once, I think we had been to Cwmdu, and when I was going up the lane the birds were singing. It would have been May. Sometimes we won but we didn’t mind if we didn’t. I entered duets and quartets and the choir pieces. We sang pieces like”The Old Rugged Cross” and hymns like”Deep Harmony”. I loved that one. The duets were also religious. I sang with my cousin, Myrtle. I sang with Eunice Watkins from Craswall.
At the Longtown Eisteddfod which began in the 1930s – I went to the first one – I entered recitation classes. I recited “If” by Rudyard Kipling, “The Loom of Time”, poems by Tennyson. They were all set pieces in those days. Now you choose your own. Eight or ten would enter each class. There were more men entered than women. I never wrote poetry. They had Impromtu Speeches which I never entered, mostly men did.
After work, of an evening, I would play the piano. We used to sing a lot. I could play by ear. My father liked us to sing, he enjoyed “Home on the Range”, “Last Rose of Summer”, some Irish songs and some wartime songs…Vera Lynn songs. I never went to dances as chapel people didn’t go.I don’t think my mother and father had anything against it, just the other young people didn’t go. We went to variety concerts at the old School in Michaelchurch which was called the Cottage Room. The concerts went on til about forty years ago when they pulled it down. They used to have dances and whist drives there. It was wonderful because it was all local entertainment, music hall type, “My Old Man’s a Dustman” type of thing.
We used to meet young men at church or chapel. The men didn’t go so far in those days to look for a wife. My son went to New Zealand to look for his! I married the boy next door – Bill Christopher of Rockyfold. We’d known each other since he’d moved to this area when I was six. When I was in school I wasn’t interested in him nor any other boys. We shared an interest in farming, and we saw a lot of each other. We used to be in the same band, he didn’t sing but he read the Bible and took services in other chapels. Sometimes in the week we’d go and give talks and take services. I never took services but my husband did. He was a local preacher and had his sixty years preaching certificate not long before he died. He preached on the Methodist Circuit which at that time had ten chapels, so the same sermon could be carried round. Sometimes I went with him and he liked this. Sometimes if we had a special preacher at our chapel he would say go there.If a preacher had travelled a long way from Bromyard or Malvern he said it was my duty to stay local then. I went with him if his service was at another time of day to ours. Our Sunday School was always in the morning and the service in the evening. He would sit down quietly in the evenings, sometimes, and prepare for his services. He also said that he used to think about them when he was at work. Even though we had a man that worked for us, he wasn’t a great talker. I think he thought about them during the week. He never put anything on paper. He had a sort of little diary and he would put the Text on top and the name of the chapel where he preached it. I’ve still got that book. He never prepared notes, just the Text. He never had any training with his voice, only the schoolmistress saying, “Speak out!” We had to recite a lot of long poetry in school. He could recite “The Lady of Shallot” even just before he died. He had a very good memory. We had women preachers,too. Miss Lloyd, she had polio when she was little. She had to be brought round in a wheelchair. She preached from her wheelchair. Preachers seldom used notes in those days. Every night we would read the Bible at home. We went through it, some Old Testament but usually the New Testament.