28 | Aycliffe Today Business
Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 29
Aycliffe Angels Vera Stobbs (left) and Joan Davies
meet John Finley inside the new ROF 59 facility.
Some of the old Ordnance Factory
brickwork can still be seen behind
Aycliffe Angel Vera Stobbs
Vera Stobbs smiles as she chats to
a Tyne Tees TV reporter.
WE’LL
MEET
AGAIN...
Joan Davies relaxes with a strawberry and cream
scone in The Blitz restaurant after doing her media
interviews.
VIP guests Joan Davies (left) and Vera Stobbs
(right) meet MP Phil Wilson and ROF 59 owners
John, Julie and Gary Finley.
70 years after the end of World War II, two Aycliffe Angels returned to one of the former
Royal Ordnance Factories on Aycliffe Business Park.
Two Aycliffe Angels returned to their
former place of work when they were special
guests at ROF 59’s official launch.
The former Presswork Metals building was
part of the huge Royal Ordnance Factory
in Aycliffe which employed 17,000 people,
mostly women, during World War II.
And 70 years after the end of the war,
Aycliffe Angels Vera Stobbs and Joan Davies
returned to the site to officially launch ROF
59 - a new activity centre and restaurant on
Durham Way South.
It brought back vivid memories for the two
ladies.
Vera, now 91, said: “My aunt used to work
here and she said she meet me when I came
for my interview. We were walking along
a big bang went off, and I said to my aunt
‘what’s that?’, and she said ‘that’s where
you’re going!’. It was the cap shop I was
going to.
“They used to bring the boxes out, just like
they do in (the TV programme) ‘Deal or No
Deal’ and you used to have break the seal
put the caps on.”
Despite the death of one of her friends,
Rosie Rob, Vera says she has fond memories
of her time on the Green shift at ROF 59.
Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) was a
traitor who worked for the Nazis during World
War II, making English Language propaganda
radio broadcasts on Radio Luxembourg and
other stations.
He dubbed them “the little angels of
Aycliffe“, promising that the Luftwaffe would
bomb them into submission.
“The Little angels of Aycliffe won’t get
away with it,” he had said in numerous
broadcasts, highlighting the importance of
their work.
And Vera recalled: “Haw Haw used to get
on the radio... there was no TVs then... and
he’d say ‘we’re coming tonight to get the
Angels’. We used to say ‘oooh is he? They’re
coming tonight!’. But they never did.”
Eight women lost their lives only six days
before VE Day in an explosion. And in another
tragedy, a young woman died weeks before
she was due to be married.
But Joan, who has lived in Aycliffe Village
all her life, said the camaraderie at ROF 59
was always good.
“You just used to take it in your stride and
get on with it,” said the 89-year-old, who
worked in plant six producing smoke bombs
for the Navy.
“There was thousands of people who
worked here. People keep showing me
photos and asking if I recognise people, but I
don’t recognise anyone because there were
so many. All of the people I knew from the
factories have died now.
“But I think this is a good thing for the
children. I think we have been forgotten, so
it is nice to see it coming to the fore like this
and people will remember the ROF workers,
who did a very good job during the war.”
ROF 59 has been created by local steel
firm