Can you help Margaret Smith find photographs and memories of her mother-in-law’s time at Swynnerton ROF (Royal Ordnance Factory) during the Second World War?
Margaret now lives in the US and sent this email to A Little Bit of Stone:
My mother-in-law Nellie Smith (née Goodwin) worked in the canteen at Swynnerton ROF and met her husband Maurice Smith there (he was an analytical chemist).
This year Nellie will celebrate her 90th birthday and I would love to find anyone who knew her and/or has photographs of her from those days. A nicer woman you couldn’t wish to meet and I am sure she is typical of the selfless, dedicated women of those days.
Nellie Smith was born at 48 Acton Street, Hanley, in 1921. Her parents were William Goodwin and Nellie Barber. They lived there until she was nine years’ old when they moved to Wood Place, Meir. Subsequently Nellie would have 10 brothers and sisters – Len, Ethel, Dennis, May, Doris, Arthur, Ted, Maureen & Betty (twins) and Peter. In 1940 they moved to 125 Sandon Road, Meir, and in 1946 she married Maurice Raymond Smith from Stone.
They both worked at ROF Swynnerton – Maurice as an analytical chemist and Nellie in the canteen. The two of them lived first at 173 Brookside Drive, Walton, and then at 81 St Vincent Road, Walton. They had three sons – Michael, John and Peter.
In 1952 they moved to Cumbria where Maurice worked for BNFL at Sellafield and having lived in Seascale for some time they finally moved to Whitehaven – which is where I met their son, John, and we married in 1972!
John and I moved to the USA in 1995 with our three children (John also worked for BNFL and they sent him over here. I was a maths teacher while in England).
Nellie is the sweetest person you could ever imagine meeting – kind, gentle and never says a bad word about anyone. She and Maurice were in love until the day he died (five years ago) and she still misses him badly.
These days she is frail but remains in good health otherwise. Her memory is slipping but her face lights up when she talks of Hanley and the Potteries (almost all the family worked there).
You can email Margaret at flossymeg@mac.com – and please keep A Little Bit of Stone posted if you’re able to help!
