Автор: Lynn Russell

This is Eileen’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“Eileen’s dad worked at the Rowntree’s factory loading cocoa beans into the grinding mills; it was hard physical work, but he was a tall and powerful figure and very fit. Eileen was only five when war broke out and her dad went away, and was just nine years old when he came back from war. ‘He looked simply horrendous. His wounded leg was still in plaster, his hair had grown long, there were…

This is Florence’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“Florence was born in 1923 and remembers sleeping three or four to a bed with the other children. ‘If it was really cold, my mum would give us the shelf out of the fireside oven, wrapped in a piece of cloth, as a hot water bottle. She’d put it right in the middle of the bed where all four of us could get our feet on it’. Florence finished school on a Friday in July 1937 and started work at…

This is Maureen’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“Maureen started work at Rowntree’s on her fifteenth birthday in April 1959, and remembers being the only one in the entire workforce who was wearing ankle socks. But she soon settled in and on Saturday afternoons Maureen and the rest of the girls would go into town – ‘I really liked the fashions then and used to love getting dressed up in those days. We wore stockings and suspenders,…

This is Dorothy’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“‘Every Friday when we got paid, they used to come round with your pay packet and a tin for charity and you’d put a penny in, and they’d go round all the machines for people to put money in. That was a very Rowntree’s thing to do.’ Dorothy gave all her pay to her grandma for her board, but was given back five shillings for herself. She loved the cinema: ‘I’d put on as much make-up as…

This is Madge’s story, one of five stories extracted from THE SWEETHEARTS.Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire.“On the morning of her Rowntrees job interview, on a warm Monday morning in July 1932, Fourteen-year-old Madge Fisher stood fidgeting in the hallway of her terraced house while her mother, Margaret, pinned up her hair and then inspected her from top to toe. ‘Hands,’ her mother said, and Madge presented them meekly for inspection, glad that she’d remembered to wash them at the kitchen…

Whether in wartime or peace, tales of love, laughter and hardship from the girls in the Rowntrees factory in Yorkshire“On a warm Monday morning in 1932, just two days after leaving school, fourteen-year-old Madge was about to join her nine brothers and sisters at Rowntree’s. The smell of chocolate was in the air but as she walked up the road, her footsteps slowed at the daunting thought of what lay ahead…”From the 1930s through to the 1980s, as Britain endured war, depression, hardship and strikes, the women at the Rowntree’s factory in York kept the chocolates coming. This is the…

Touching true stories from the heyday of the Butlin’s holiday camps.‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.’With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin’s.When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in…