FRIENDS who were once part of a 2,000-strong team devoted to serving the Royal Navy are holding a reunion later this month.
Barbara Falcus, of Ingleby Barwick, said she had been overjoyed by the response of former friends and workers who once worked at the Royal Navy depot at Allens West, near Eaglescliffe.
The huge former hangars and warehouses are due to be demolished as planning permission has been granted to build more than 800 houses on the site.
Mrs Falcus, who was known as Babs at work, explained that her husband, Paul, also worked at the Royal Navy supply and transport service centre, known simply as “the depot” to all who worked there.
The depot closed in 1996 as part of defence cuts. It had been used as a back-up to Thornaby aerodrome in the Second World War but was taken over for use by the Royal Navy in 1948.
Mrs Falcus, who worked at the depot from 1972 to 1996, rising to the rank of executive officer, is organising the reunion with former colleague Sue Morrison. She said there was always a lot of social events and sense of camaraderie at the works, but during the Falklands War in 1982 and the first Gulf War in 1990 everyone pulled together even more to make sure the Navy was well served.
She said: “I wouldn’t say there was a different sense of duty at the depot, but a greater sense. People would stay all night. I remember being there alone when the Sheffield went down in the Falklands. There was nothing I could do, so I just sat there and cried.”
Mr Falcus, who was also an executive officer and had previously served in the Royal Navy, said he remembered being moved by a photograph of site superintendent Ron Stewart when the news came the Government was going to close the depot.
Mr Stewart had tears in his eyes and was dubbed “the man who cried” in local newspapers at the time.
Mr Falcus said: He was known as a hard man and some people said he wanted the place closed, but that just wasn’t true. He really fought for the depot. It was a big family. I never worked anywhere like it for camaraderie.”
Part of the Ministry of Defence site is now the Urlay Nook Admiralty ecology park. The rest was sold to a distribution company in 1997.
*The reunion for former workers and their families is at Stockton Cricket Club on Saturday October 26. Only 150 can attend and nearly 130 tickets, costing £10 each, have been sold. Contact Babs Falcus on 07494 494574 or Sue Morrison on 07980 134609.
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