Annie Noone
Birstall
Served: 1942 - 1946; Grantham, Lincolnshire
Annie Noone lives in a lovely flat just off Birstall Marketplace. She was born in Birstall and has lived there all her life. When she left school, like many a young woman in the area, she became a carpet weaver. A life changing experience was imminent. An unremarkable envelope arrived in the post and it resulted in her arrival at Corby Glen, Grantham on 9 March 1942. This hostel was to be her home for the next four years. However, she had to share it with another 39 young women mainly from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
There was little formal training and she learnt on the job. It was mainly fieldwork, picking and pulling vegetables like potatoes, cabbages and beets. During the summer the grain harvest had to be brought in, and that meant long hours for everyone. The two main jobs were stooking and loading the sheaves on to tractor drawn carts, the latter was known as leading-in. These jobs were replaced long ago by the combines. They didn’t see much of the farmers and Mary is of the opinion that they didn’t like women doing the jobs that they thought were men’s work. The women of the WLA were able to enjoy a good social life as they could walk down to the village pub. In the area were paras and American servicemen so the dances in the village hall were lively affairs. She recalls talking to two Mexican Americans in the pub. They told her that they were shocked to find white women talking to them. Later, when she went outside to put on her wellingtons she found they contained cigarettes and nylons
She was demobbed on 9 February 1946
She returned to Birstall and to the carpet weaving. In 1951 she got married and raised her family. A change of career found her working at the famous factory of Fox’s Biscuits. She retired from there after 17 years. Nothing quite ever matched up to the farm work.
At 85 she looks after herself and is looking forward to seeing Mary Muldoon at “the do.”
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