Recollections of long ago

Just after WW2

By Ian Mcdowall

I arrived in Corby in autumn 1945, fresh from studying metallurgy in Glasgow University. Posted to S&L under the Direction of Labour Act, the firm had assigned me to the DR&TD in Corby. Initially I lived in " digs" in Stephenson Way , but later moved to Carlton Hall, then run by the company as a staff hostel for young unmarried men. Looked after by the steward and his wife, there were only about six of us. We felt like country gentlemen, dining together in the evening, sometimes entertained by one of our number playing on the grand piano in the dining room. Dinner might be followed by a stroll through fields to the pub in Middleton where we were allowed to sit round the table in the kitchen and put the world to rights; or perhaps change to whites for a game of tennis on the court behind the Hall. Alas, the passing years - ! Even today I am reminded of that time whenever I hear the sound of a woodpecker in a summer evening. In December 1949 I married Yvonne ( Coole) in Weldon church and early in 1950 we were able to rent a new house in Willow brook Rd. About two years later we moved away and lived happily in different places in Scotland and England, until sadly in 1983 Yvonne died.

Photo taken on first game I played for S&L Rugby team October 1945

,