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Lizzie Holmes: Oral History Interview


Women's Football at the Coke Ovens, Horden


Transcript of oral history interview:

Interviewer – Tell us about when you played football, how did you come to play?

Mrs Holmes – Well, when we worked on the ovens, the boss got us together, he said, “Well, we’ll have some sport done on a Saturday afternoon and on a night time.” We used to go up training in the field, the same football field is there yet. We used to go there training. Well we got this football team up, for charity matches.

Interviewer – All women?

Mrs Holmes – All women, charity matches, Hartlepool football team used to come and play us, we used to go to Hartlepool to play them, we would go to Wingate to play them, there were football teams all over the place then. We used to go on the train. It was only about sixpence in the train then to Sunderland or Hartlepool. We used to travel around every weekend, to play football. Then we got our new football uniforms. Now when the war finished and the men came home from the war, Mr Holmes came home, he wanted to go back to the pit, why the pitmen then wore what they call pit hoggers, “Well, where am I going to get a pair of pit hoggers no I am gannin back to the pit, you want pit shoes to gan back.” He wanted rigging out for the pit. So he was a cobbler, he could make a pair of shoes, never mind mend a pair. So he put the bars, leather bars across my football shoes, he made them his pit shoes till he got a pay, until he could go and get a pair of pit shoes – he made my football trousers into a pair of hoggers, he had to wear them for hoggers until he got a pay or two, then he got his own pit clothes bought.

Date: 1976

Creator: Easington People Past and Present

Reference: http://collections.beamish.org.uk/search-results?query=holmes&searchType=audio&go.x=0&go.y=0

Where to find this: Beamish Museum

Contributed by Durham County Record Office

Comments on this story


Comment

Dear gemmahunter

Thank you so much for your comment.

I really like listening to this one, too! The pages that we did on Lizzie Holmes were some of the very first ones for the Durham at War website and I feel a great sense of affection for them and for her. I never tire of telling the story of Lizzie giving up her football kit so that Mr Holmes could go down the pit when the war finished.

I know that a lot of people have seen these particular pages and Lizzie is remembered far and wide.

All the best

Jo

Contributed by

Jo Vietzke | Durham County Record Office

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I love listening to this, Lizzie Holmes was my Great Grandmother. She had another daughter Christina (not listed above). Christina was my Grandmother. She passed away Nov 11th 2017

Contributed by

gemmahunter

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