Elsie Eva Price - Part 1
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Transcript
00:00:03 Introduction
00:00:31 Elsie is born in 1918 and describes her childhood activities in Trelewis and the surrounding area
00:02:03 Elsie leaves school at 14 and goes into service at Berth Gron Farm, Nelson, and learns how to milk cows
00:03:12 Elsie becomes a house parlour maid in Somerset; the work was harder than the farm and found it a less friendly environment
00:05:43 Work left little time for entertainment, all leisure time was spent visiting family
00:06:23 While working at the Hendai Farm, Gelligaer, Elsie visits Cardiff for the first time on the day of King Edward VIII's abdication
00:07:43 Elsie gets married in May 1939 to James from Abercynon; remembering the canals of the Cynon Valley, her father-in-law being the last "bargee" in the area
00:10:23 Elsie recounts how a tragedy for Elsie’s mother-in-law led to the birth of her husband, James
00:11:35 James becomes a member of the Royal Artillery aged 17, prior to the war, having been enamoured by the uniform
00:12:52 Elsie was living in Bridgwater, Somerset when war broke out
00:13:56 Elsie’s fears for her husband when the war started; James only came home once during the war; James has a narrow escape during a bombing while stationed in Northern Ireland, his friend from the Rhondda lost his legs in the attack
00:16:08 Recalling the bombs dropped near Abercynon
00:17:04 Elsie and her friend get a job at the munitions factory, the Arsenal, making detonators in area D20; Elsie describes her initial impressions of the factory
00:19:45 Elsie explains why she turned down the opportunity to become an overseer; some of the other women there cried at the thought of working with the detonators as they were so dangerous
00:22:49 Elsie confronts another worker on the bus who was spreading false rumours about casualties in area D20
00:23:52 One night, an accident claims lives in the drying area of the factory
00:26:00 Elsie describes her shift pattern; she stops working there as her "nerves had gone" and started having fits; the wages and a threat of a strike over the withholding of danger money