Janet speaks about her career in caring, telling of how she began working with special educational needs, her experiences in running a hostel for homeless families and the challenges associated with it. Janet further details her move to working in a residential home and personal challenges. She is an active volunteer in the community. I […]
Education and Training
A Career in Primary Schools (1940s-1990s)
Rowena always wanted to be a teacher and trained and worked in Norwich as a primary school teacher. What were you thinking about as a future career when you were about to leave school? I always wanted to be a teacher and I just went straight for it! I stayed on at school till I […]
A Cook’s Tour (1949-1995)
Doreen started work in 1949 in Bonds department store in Norwich. After going to America with her husband, she became a school cook in Norfolk. I started work in 1949 when I left school, and I started at .. . it was Bonds then, the Department Store in Norwich, and I worked in the Hat […]
A technical life: from an RAF instrument fitter to a secondary school technician (1947-1994)
Ronald went to schools in London and Norfolk before joining the RAF as an apprentice at the age of 16. He qualified as a navigational instrument fitter and spent the next 12 years in the RAF, with postings including RAF Marham and to Adelaide in South Australia. After working for several years as a technical […]
Bombs, ghosts and garlic (1945-1997)
Marjorie shares memories of her wonderfully varied working life as a machinist, doctors’ maid, schools cook, solicitor’s filing clerk and Norwich Castle museum attendant, and more besides. Early life during World War Two I was born in Norwich in 1931. I went to St. Augustine’s School which was bombed in the April, during the blitz […]
Communication: a lifetime spent working with deafblind people in Norfolk (1952-2015)
After her first job at Start-rite, Heather began working for Social Services in Norfolk in 1978. In her work, she used Deafblind Manual to communicate with people with dual sensory loss. She was also proficient in British Sign Language and in Braille. Heather was ordained in 1996, and served as an assistant priest in Sprowston. […]
Developments in Social Care (1951-1990s)
Betty talks about development in social work Shall I start with how I got involved with social work, how I got interested in social work to start with? I left school when I was eighteen and at that time the war had finished and there was a lot of thought being given to how we […]
Egypt, encyclopaedias, education (1937-2006)
Peter recalls his varied army career, from Lowestoft to Egypt and his post-war career as a special needs teacher, as a dyslexic himself. Early years I was born in Gravesend, Kent, in 1920. My father had been a priest in Bagthorpe, Nottinghamshire, before moving south. After I was born my father obtained a living in […]
Engineering, education and fostering (1960s-2018)
After a career in engineering Peter pursued his interests in education, social justice and fostering. I was partly occupied before I left school, as when I was studying for my A levels I made a little bit of local history. Not particularly politically correct these days but I was one of the first male check-out […]
Finding my niche (1964-2014)
Christine was a secretary until she found her niche working with special children at the age of 40. She still volunteers for Thalia in Norwich. I was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and when I was 11 years old my parents decided to move to Norwich. My father came from Grimsby, but my mother, who was […]