Content

The Story of 'The Angels'

Where does all this information come from

Why were they called 'The Aycliffe Angels'?

What did the Factory manufacture?

Plans and Photos of the Factory (1940s)

TIMELINE of the Factory & Workers

Winston Churchill visits the Aycliffe Factory (1942)

Mrs Dillon - Senior ROF worker who received a medal

Honour at last, thanks to The Northern Echo

The Aycliffe Angels 2000-2020

Extremely dangerous work...

Workers' Houses and Accommodation

350 Houses on Secret Estate in Darlington

Photo Gallery 1 - (Admin Staff)

Photo Gallery 2 - (Production Staff)

Photo Gallery 3 - (Individual Angels)

Photo Gallery 4 - (ROF site in 1945)

Photo Gallery 5 - (ROF Fire Brigade)

Documents and Certificates etc...

What's left of Aycliffe ROF?

Surviving ROF buildings...

Links for History of The Aycliffe Angels
  

Churchill visit – 15th May 1942

Photograph courtesy of The Northern Echo Archive, originally from the County Durham Archive.

Wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a vist to the Aycliffe Royal Ordnance factory on 15th May 1942.

  

Snow on the ground....

Apparently, on the day Winston Churchill visited the factory it had been snowing (in May!), and much of the snow had turned to brown horrible slush.

Because it looked so bad, some of the 'Girls' went and collected fresh snow from the surrounding fields to cover the dirty stuff and make it look nicer for Winston.

  

A cigar for The Prime Minister....

One of the female workers, Miss Gladys Stoddart approached Winston Churchill to gave him a kiss and a present of a cigar.

  

Prime Minister Kisses Ferryhill Girl

The headline from The Northern Echo read:-

Prime Minister Kisses Ferryhill Girl


Pretty 21-year-old Miss Gladys Stoddart, whose home in peace time is in Ferryhill, is likely to be known among her fellow workers and at the nearby hostel in future as "the girl that kissed Churchill".....

  

Miss Gladys Stoddart

Miss Stoddart is a wages clerk in the administrative buildings and was apparently chosen for her enviable task because, in the words of her boss (Wages Officer) she is "one of the best girls I have got".

Miss Stoddart, like most of the girls, had never seen Mr.Churchill in person before. She told a Northern Echo reporter "I was so excited that I scarcely knew what I was saying".

  

Why Churchill had to put out his cigar

Photograph of Evening Despatch, November 8th 1983, thanks to Helen Dunnington Waters.