Glendale Gateway Trust: The Second World War Years in Glendale

Glendale, Northumberland

Wooler High Street, 2001

Photo: Glendale Gateway Trust

The Glendale Gateway Trust Oral History Group came together for the purpose of sharing in this exciting community history project. Their members are seeking to obtain an insight into what life was like during World War Two in the Glendale district of Northumberland.

All of their members are either retired or semi-retired and their careers have covered a diverse range of professions: education, social work, business, tourism and transport. Most of them are involved in the social life of Wooler, it's University of the Third Age, Camera Club and many other societies.

It was in Wooler that they became interested in the many stories told to them by the senior members of these educational and social groups. Whilst some of the people interviewed for the project were born and brought up in the area, others had moved or retired there because, at some time, they had either been evacuated or billeted there whilst undergoing training in the armed forces.

They felt that their memories of the past and the changes in and around the Glendale area were truly worth preserving for posterity. The means of gathering the information - by interviewing and recording the life stories of present and former residents of this market town - appealed to them immensely.  Hence their involvement.