Robin Longbottom on how women and girls across the area played an essential role during the Second World War

DURING the Second World War, the girls and women of Keighley and South Craven played a vital role in supporting the country and ensuring victory.

Britain had begun to prepare for the conflict as early as 1936. On January 1, 1938, the Air-Raid Precautions Act came into force, and all local authorities were required to have their own volunteer ARP service.

Barbara Oxley, who lived in Shann Lane, Keighley, enlisted before the outbreak of the war. She worked as a clerk and telephonist at an office in North Street and, as she had a driving licence, was trained as an ambulance driver. She recalled in later years that she struggled with the vehicle's long gear stick and crash gear box, but once she had mastered it remained on duty for the rest of the war to rescue casualties in the event of the town being bombed.

Twenty-year-old Lilian Yaxley, of Edensor Road, Keighley, who worked as a paper tube cutter at John Stell and Sons of Holme Mill, also joined the ARP. Her duties would have included fire watching once a week and ensuring that the blackout was enforced.

In 1939 the Women’s Land Army was raised to replace farm workers who had joined the forces and to boost food production. Jean Williams, who lived at Nutt Head Cottage in Steeton and worked as an assistant in a furniture shop, joined aged 19 at the outbreak of war. Soon after joining she found herself posted to a farm in Wiltshire milking cows, haymaking and driving tractors.

Other women joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, and the nursing services. Of the many that remained at home, thousands were employed in war work at factories throughout the district.

Annie Pickard was 41 when war was declared and had volunteered to work on the railway in Keighley during the First World War. She lived in Richmond Street and was a metal stamping press operator at Longbottom and Company in Lawkholme Lane. The firm had been owned and managed by Maggie Longbottom since the death of her husband in 1936. She lived in Earl Street and negotiated contracts with the Ministry of Defence to make parts for gas masks and rifle slings. The company relied on women and girls to keep the presses running throughout the war.

By far the biggest female employer was the Royal Ordnance Factory at Steeton, known locally as the Dump. The name came from ‘ammo dump’, a phrase used by troops in the First World War to describe an ASP (ammunition supply point). The factory was built next to the railway on the village cricket ground and neighbouring fields, and started manufacturing in 1941. At the height of production, over 2,000 women and girls worked there. The factory made munitions, including 20mm shells and cases for anti-aircraft guns. The components were taken by train to another site, probably to Thorp Arch, near Wetherby, to be fitted with detonators and loaded with explosives.

Mrs Minnie Stovold, who lived in Gott Street, Cross Roads, had been a bobbin winder in the local mill. She worked as a machinist and was a shop steward at the Dump. One of her roles was to settle disputes and grievances and intervene in issues with staff, such as the time when Annie Scott had worked all day with her machine on the wrong setting and in her words had “beggered the lot”.

At the end of the war, only a handful of local girls received recognition for their work during the conflict. One of the few was Minnie Stovold, who was awarded an MBE in 1945 for her work at Steeton. “I don’t know why I’ve been awarded it”, she said, “the girls at the factory have all worked well.”