I WAS recently able to go to London to speak at the Annual General Meeting of the Women’s History Network.

Their conference was held at the London School of Economic’s Library, which houses the Women’s Library.

Their conference theme was Women and Work and I delivered a paper on the 12,000 women who worked at HM Factory Gretna (the Devil’s Porridge Museum tells the story of this, the greatest factory in the world in World War One).

The talk was well received and there was a person in the audience from Penrith and one from Metal Bridge - between Gretna and Carlisle - who remembered hearing stories as a girl about the ‘yellow women’ who worked at Gretna during The Great War.

She had no knowledge of their activities but remembered being told about them and was delighted to hear that a museum now existed to tell their story.

The contribution of the women workers of HM Factory Gretna - which stretched along the Solway shoreline from Dornock, near Annan, to Longtown - is renowned worldwide and celebrated as part of the exhibition at the Devil’s Porridge Museum at Eastriggs.

n There will be some spooky half-term fun at the museum this weekend. A Halloween Party is being held between 6pm and 8pm on Saturday, with entry £1.50 per child. Prizes will be presented for the best costume.

For more details, go to www.devilsporridge.org.uk