SHE CARTS COAL AND LIKES IT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 6 January 1936, Page 8

SHE CARTS COAL AND LIKES IT

Miss Ivy Goodrem, aged 26, is the only woman coalman in England. Dressed like a man in khaki breeches and shirt, with a beret to cover her hair, she not only drives her coal lorry on her delivery round at Mildenhall (Suffolk), but carries the coal into the houses on her own back. She can cart eight tons a day. That she considers a fair day’s work, and she then feels justified in bathing and changing and dashing off to dance until one or two in the morning. She used to be a waitress in Cambridge. But the work was too heavy for her. Carrying trays ot food up two flights of stairs made her tired; she decided to look for an easier job. About four years ago her father, a coal merchant, died. Miss Goodrem went home to help carry on the business. “We couldn’t afford io employ another mail,’’ she explained, “and it either meant closing down or my taking on the job. People said it was too hard for a girl of 22, but nothing of the kind. I enjoy every minute of it. I load the lorry myself early every morning, drive it round and cart the coal into the customers’ houses. I’m often mistaken for a man, and in winter the job gets a bit muddy and irksome. I didn’t like the idea of black hands and a black face at first, hut I soon got used to that. Anyway, it’s much easier than being a waitress. I shudder when I think of those days. 1 never was particularly strong, you see. — 1 ‘Evening Standard.”