Ridham Docks, Iwade: Depending on Women

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In 1914 the women of Kent found themselves in training for jobs which just months earlier they could never have imagined. At Ridham Docks in the north of the county, they were set to work unloading, cleaning and repairing uniforms and equipment damaged on the battlefield. In this photo you can see many of the women perched on top of thousands of boxes of munitions. The state of the equipment they had to clean and repair gave them an insight into the horrors of the front. They were banned from any sort of communication with the men who were fighting but they would often stitch little good luck notes and other messages into the seams of uniforms as they repaired them. Britain depended on these women in wartime but when peace came they struggled to go back to their traditional roles as wives and mothers without the right to vote. Location: Ridham Docks, Iwade, Kent ME9 8SR Image: Women workers at Ridham Docks, courtesy of Dennis Mears Presented by Sara Smith