Norman Pilton remembers when Westland had two factories in Martock during WW2

Martock ‘A’ was going up through East Street, where the Pinnacle is. Instead of going round to go up through Martock you go straight on up through. I think it was an old farm building they’d taken over. That was where Martock ‘A’ was. Martock ‘B’ was up half-way along North Street as they call it, down where Paulls, the tent makers were. Westland took over all of that except for one type of hangar which Paulls still kept. We used to do all sorts of things up there, muck about and what have you, but it was very enjoyable. I was quite thrilled with it all.

I think now that I look at going from Montacute to Martock and think to myself well, I was a boy, just fourteen, and I see these youngsters now and think was I that small when I used to have to cycle to Martock every day. You had to be down there for half-past-seven and you had to be at your bench ready to start work. Not like they do nowadays.

They come in any old time and say flexihours and all the rest of it. It was just unfortunate you had to be there and that was it.