Miscellaneous documents
Reference: D/X 1822 Catalogue Title: Miscellaneous documents Area: Catalogue Category: Other Records Description: Aycliffe Angels
Covering Dates: 1938-2005
Access: Some documents in this collection are closed to the public as they contain personal information. See individual item entries for further information.
Catalogue Index
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- Miscellaneous documents
- Miscellaneous Records - Aycliffe Angels (Ref: D/X 1822)
- Plans (Ref: D/X 1822/1)
- Programmes of Entertainments (Ref: D/X 1822/2)
- Press Cuttings (Ref: D/X 1822/3)
- Commemoration of the Aycliffe Angels (Ref: D/X 1822/4-21)
- Photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/21)
- Displays and Scrapbooks (Ref: D/X 1822/22-30)
- Display (Ref: D/X 1822/22)
- Scrapbook (Ref: D/X 1822/23)
- Woodham Comprehensive School [later Woodham Community College] (Ref: D/X 1822/24-30)
- Press Cuttings (Ref: D/X 1822/24)
- Photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/25)
- Letters (Ref: D/X 1822/26-27)
- Displays (Ref: D/X 1822/28)
- Records relating to Individual Aycliffe Angels (Ref: D/X 1822/31-59)
- Vera Barber [nee Vera Coulthard] (Ref: D/X 1822/31-33)
- Certificates (Ref: D/X 1822/33)
- Edith Bedford (Ref: D/X 1822/34)
- Vera Brown [nee Vera Soakell] (Ref: D/X 1822/35)
- Florence Gray (Ref: D/X 1822/36-37)
- Poetry (Ref: D/X 1822/36)
- 'Margaret H' (Ref: D/X 1822/38)
- Hazel Florence Howe (Ref: D/X 1822/39)
- Jenny Kirkby (Ref: D/X 1822/40)
- Mr. D. Scott (Ref: D/X 1822/41)
- Mrs. Skelton (Ref: D/X 1822/42)
- James Smith (Ref: D/X 1822/43)
- Zoe Smith [nee Zoe West] (Ref: D/X 1822/44-49)
- Notebooks (Ref: D/X 1822/44)
- Handbooks and Official Notices (Ref: D/X 1822/45)
- Poems and Personal Notes (Ref: D/X 1822/47)
- Photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/49)
- Ruth T. Vickery (Ref: D/X 1822/50-57)
- Notebooks (Ref: D/X 1822/50)
- Photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/51)
- Official Notes (Ref: D/X 1822/52)
- Press Cuttings (Ref: D/X 1822/53)
- Poems and Personal Notes (Ref: D/X 1822/54-55)
- Oral History Recordings (Ref: D/X 1822/56)
- Correspondence (Ref: D/X 1822/57)
- Eric Welsh (Ref: D/X 1822/58)
- Ethel Hannah Whitting [nee Ethel Hannah Gittins] (Ref: D/X 1822/59)
- Photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/60)
- Group photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/60/1)
- Photographs of Aycliffe Angels at work (Ref: D/X 1822/60/2)
- Photographs from Hydro Polymers of the buildings of R. O. F. Aycliffe (Ref: D/X 1822/60/3)
- Other building photographs (Ref: D/X 1822/60/4)
- Books and articles (Ref: D/X 1822/61-62)
- Joseph Coulthard (Ref: D/X 1822/61)
- Published Books (Ref: D/X 1822/62)
- Aycliffe Village Hall (Ref: D/X 1822/63-66)
- Correspondence (Ref: D/X 1822/63)
- Constitution (Ref: D/X 1822/64)
- Minutes (Ref: D/X 1822/65)
- Miscellaneous (Ref: D/X 1822/66)
- Aycliffe Parish Magazine (Ref: D/X 1822/67)
Catalogue Description
Royal Ordnance Factory 59 (R. O. F. Aycliffe) was a munitions factory at Aycliffe. It was classed as a filing factory and was where the raw ingredients of explosives, casings and detonators were brought together and assembled into bullets, shells and bombs. This was the most dangerous part of munitions production.Production began in the spring of 1941 and ceased when war ended in Europe in May 1945. The majority of workers were women and were nicknamed 'Aycliffe Angels', because Lord Haw Haw referred in his broadcasts to the 'little angels of Aycliffe'.
This collection was compiled by Andrew Hutton, a journalist at the Northern Echo, in the course of his work creating a website about the Aycliffe Angels. It includes many records given to him by women who worked in the factory.
Related records held in Durham County Record Office include: D/X 1250, NT/Ay, and D/X 779/228.
Related records held at the National Archives include: INF 6/568, documentary film about spare time activities of munitions workers [may or may not be directly related to R. O. F. Aycliffe]; PREM 4/40/3, Report on R. O. F Filling Factories; AVIA 22/330, correspondence with Ministry of Supply regarding filling factories.
Catalogue Contents
See also D/X 1822/28(34, 88, 90) and D/X 1822/60/1/13.
Ref: D/X 1822/31