Meryl Teague: Office Administrator, Payroll, Book Keeping.

Deeks, Roger ORCID: 0000-0003-3012-8913 and Teague, Meryl (2016) Meryl Teague: Office Administrator, Payroll, Book Keeping. [Audio] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Meryl Teague, nee Lewis, was born 11 June 1935 at Sling, Forest of Dean, the daughter of James (Jim) Lewis a coal miner and Eunice Jones. Meryl attended Ellwood Primary school and Bells Grammar School, leaving at 17 to work in an office at Carters, ‘The Ribena Factory’. She talks of growing up in the Forest of Dean, her father’s work as a miner and love of gardening, her involvement with the Girls Light Brigade and school performances of Gilbert and Sullivan Operas and with Lydney Baptist Church. Later she joined Lydcroft Ladies Choir and is treasurer for local groups in Parkend including the Carnival, and Brass band which her daughters and grandsons all played in. She describes her life in an office where most work was done by hand and unusally for the time of being a working mother. She moved to the offices at Typrod at Lydney Industrial Estate, then worked with Eric Chilvers, the local Baptist Minister and part time accountant and was finally was self-employed doing books for local small business clients. She married Stanley Bernard Teague in 1958 and they had two daughters, Sharon and Hayley. Stan started work delivering coal before he was 16 years old and later worked at the Ribena Factory, Typrod as a long distance driver before setting up his own business; Ready Mix. He died in 2003 Throughout she describes life in the Forest and what has changed and what has not over the years. Overview: The ‘Voices from the Forest’ collection represents a series of oral history recordings made between 2016 and 2019 (continuing) and funded as part of the Foresters’ Forest project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund landscape partnership programme. The recordings take a biographical, life story approach to discover the occupational histories of men and women in the Forest of Dean in the last half of the twentieth century. It compliments a series of recordings, made in the 1980s by Elsie O’Livey in the Forest of Dean, that feature the life stories of people in the first half of the century. The recordings are a rich source of material for social geographers, social and cultural historians and those interested in the history of the Forest of Dean and the broad occupational history of the area. The recordings feature recollections of men who worked thorough the last days of large-scale coal mining in the area, forestry related work and their adaptation to new modes of employment in fabrication and manufacturing industries. The collection has made a special emphasis on recording the experiences of women in the domestic setting, their experiences in the factories that grew throughout the period and the diaspora providing domestic services in London, Cheltenham and elsewhere. The improvements in domestic utilities, education and opportunity are reflected across the recordings. The recordings also reflect the economic uncertainty that existed throughout the twentieth century and the persistence of traditional activities such as sheep commoning, freemining and small holding that provided alternative forms of sustainable family living. The experience of major events such as the Second World War, post war rationing, and the Foot and Mouth epidemics are covered. The recordings were made in the homes of the interviewees and consents and permissions were in accordance with GDPR (2019).

Item Type:	Audio
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Forest of Dean Carters Ribena Bells Grammar School Coleford Typrod Lydney Coleford
Related URLs:	http://www.voicesfromtheforest.co.uk/
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human geography. Human ecology. Anthropogeography H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD2350.8 Large industry, Factory system, Big business L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Depositing User:	Jason Griffiths
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2019 15:11
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2021 21:47
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/7019

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