Working in the Scunthorpe Ironstone Mines

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bill Ross of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Emily Oldroyd, and has been added to the site with the author’s permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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My husband and I got married in 1939. My husband worked in the ironstone mine called Wynn’s and we moved to Scunthorpe where he worked. My husband used to do firewatching in Scunthorpe in the High Street.
One lunchtime I was watching two aeroplanes flying over Market Hill in Scunthorpe, and I thought they were practicing, until shrapnel shattered the windows behind me and I realised that one was German. I soon got out of the way!
The German aircraft used to follow the railway line from Hull to Scunthorpe – they would see the flarelamps round the ironstone mines and aim for them to destroy them. The men had to scatter and stand under the mine face and shelter under machines.
Before the war my husband ran a dance band called ‘Blue Star’ in Sheffield first and then in Scunthorpe, and he continued this during the war. He would arrange dances at Army camps and RAF bases, and would organise buses to take WAAFs and soldiers to the dances. The bus was driven by the clarinet player. We used to go to bases all over Lincolnshire.

Pr-BR

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