A very large number of women from Thornley, Ludworth and Wheatley Hill worked at the huge Newton Aycliffe munitions factory in 1939-45. One of them was my grandmother, Violet Longstaff, then of 41 School Square, Thornley. Her daughter Olive also worked at the plant, but always on an alternative shift so that there was always one grown-up in the house to look after Violet’s youngest child, my mother, Vera Longstaff, who was then still at school. Mrs Longstaff, in glasses, is standing six in from the right in the fourth row from the front. To the right of her is Mrs Bennett, also of Thornley, the mother of Geordie Bennett, who worked in the colliery office at Thornley after losing a leg. This photograph would have been taken during the war, but I have no further information regarding the other people on it. At least several of the other women featured must have been from Thornley. All further details most welcome. For a close-up enlargement of my grandmother and Mrs Bennett, see below.
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