The History of Ruddington Depot
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Wartime Operations
Working on Dirty Side
Everywhere on the Depot Side which was not inside the inner
fence and therefore part of Clean Side, was deemed to be Dirty Side. 
Ministry of Supply Staff who worked in the administration office with Eileen
Selby (front row, second from the right) As Eileen Selby worked in
the Ministry of Supply administration building on the southern boundary of
the site, well outside the inner fence, she worked on Dirty Side. As she was
an office worker she did not work shifts:
“I cycled to work all the time, in frost, snow, fog and everything. Sometimes you were searched to see if you had a nail file or anything metal on you, and asked questions. Everything had to be metal free, even on dirty side. We were issued with special shoes with rubber soles and leather tops, and no metal at all. They had a convict arrow on the front, which caused quite a lot of fun, but we took the stitching out and blackened them all over.
We worked 6 days a week, sometimes 7 days. We would have an occasional Saturday off, and an occasional Sunday on. Music could be piped through the building and one Sunday one record was played all day long. It was, ‘I don’t want to set the world on fire’. It just couldn’t be stopped. We worked from 8 in the morning until up to 7 at night. That included overtime. There was overtime most nights until 7.00pm. On Saturdays we worked until 5.00pm and if we worked on Sundays that would be 8 till 5 as well. It was all recorded very correctly, on a time sheet, by clocking on and off. If you were late you got stopped quarter of an hour, but you got extra pay for overtime.
It was a silent place to work. There would be all those people bomb filling just over the wire fence, but you never saw anyone. They would be doing their shift in their section while we were doing our work on the other side. It was eerie.”
Equipment and materials were ordered from contractors to precise specifications. Each order had to be typed out.
“I was typing all the time. There might be 60 forms to be typed during the day, each one with specifications. We were under artificial light all the time. There were no windows. It got very tedious sometimes.
A close friend of mine was the teleprinter operator. When she was asked if she could recommend someone in the office to learn the job, she put forward my name. I took to it like a duck to water and eventually had the chance of passing an exam. I then received the princely sum of ten shilling a week, and combined being a typist with being a teleprinter operator and working the switchboard as well. Teleprinting was never monotonous because you were able to get up such a high speed. You were just clicking away. It was lovely. I never tired of doing it!”
The daily routine allowed for breaks:
“Between the building I worked in, and another one beside it, there was a small building called The Shift House. We had a break morning and afternoon, and that was the only place where people could smoke. We had a big urn in there, and we went and helped ourselves to tea morning and afternoon.
Dinner break was from 12 until 1. There was no canteen in our section. Most people ate food they brought with them, but I cycled home for my dinner. My mother used to do baked potatoes, which I wrapped in newspaper and carried in my jacket back to the office. My friends, Lily and Olive ate them up eagerly. When we had fire drill we went outside in the fresh air and sunshine, so we used to enjoy that.”
Social events took place out of office hours.
“The office staff contributed one shilling (5p) per week, and once a year we booked a meal at the Mikado in Nottingham. When we went in, our table was ready and the orchestra was playing …how lovely. Sometimes a group of about 10 people would go into the Trip to Jerusalem and other places, or we would go to the Cinema.
We had dances in one of the canteens on site, the one near the Green. One of the fire patrolmen, Bert Pygall, put dances on there. We had some good times. We really stuck to each other in our little office group. We cared for each other and helped each other. It was nice!”
The Story > Chapter 3 > Section 3.13