TWO sisters are to make an emotional return to the hotel where they spent the war years.

Mary McKenna and Kath Campbell left Leadgate, near Consett, County Durham, in 1940, aged 17 and 15, to find work.

The sisters spent the next five years working at the Eversfield Hotel in Swan Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

The pair are to make a return journey to the hotel - and will be staying there next week, in what is now the £100-a-night Ruskin Hotel.

"This time we will be VIPs, not cleaning drains or shovelling coke," said Mrs Campbell, 78, who lives in Blackhill, Consett.

The Eversfield Hotel was owned by Vicky Freid, a Jewish refugee from Austria.

In between setting them tasks, from cleaning the drains to serving dinner, she taught the girls folk songs from her homeland.

"She use to call us her children," said Mrs McKenna, who also lives in Blackhill.

The trip has been paid for by Mrs McKenna's daughters, Kath Walton and Anne Dick, and her sons Vin, Paul and John.

The family presented the sisters with tickets and the hotel booking as a gift at Mrs McKenna's 80th birthday party, held at Consett Golf Club last weekend.

The party also held one more surprise for the sisters - a recording of an Austrian folk song that Mrs Freid had taught them as girls.

Mrs McKenna's granddaughter, Nicola McDonald, found the recording by chance after the family had given up all hope of tracking it down.

"The whole family knows the song, because they sing it to us," said Mrs Walton.

"But we couldn't find it anywhere."

Nicola said: "My mam had looked for hours and hours, everywhere we could think of.

"On the way to town one day, I was singing it at the bus stop to a family friend, who told me they had it at home.

"I took it straight round to my mam's and we sat there laughing and crying at the same time, tears rolling down our cheeks.

"We were so pleased to have found it."