The History of Ruddington Depot
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Building The Depot
Working on the site
Eileen Selby (nee Hallam) was a seventeen year old living in Ruddington:
“I was working at Boots and realised with the war on I would have to start and sort my life out. When the Depot was nearing completion, I wondered, “Where am I going to be sent?” Coming up to 18, I could have been sent anywhere to do war work. The Depot was being erected on the old Elms Fields belonging to the Piddocks so I used to go up there on a Saturday morning round the different contractors, but couldn’t find anyone to contact. Then just talking to someone they said “Oh, you want to go to a certain office, Sir Alexander Gibb, they’re looking for office staff.” So off I went and got myself a job with Sir Alexander Gibb – they were the main contractors, consulting engineers for the whole Depot.”
Jack Bagguley saw a chance to earn an honest penny:
“There were ten or a dozen horses and carts working on the site and they used to have them in a stable up Easthorpe Street. To save the Head Horseman coming in on a Saturday and Sunday night, I used to go and feed them for him. He used to give me five bob. 5/- was a lot of money in those days.”
Construction projects of this kind demanded a great deal of manpower and despite residual pools of unemployment, the supply of workers was limited. The Ministry of Labour imported labour from Ireland and it is estimated that in total, between 60,000 and 100,000 Irishmen were employed during the early stages of the war. About 4000 of them were engaged by the main contractor to construct the Ruddington Depot.
The Story > Chapter 2 > Section 2.04