Freda Woods worked at the British Legion in June 1981. Stan Ogden had told Hilda that he was going there (although he actually went to the Sports and Social Club) and when he came home at 3.00am, Hilda was suspicious. She later heard Mike Baldwin and Bert Tilsley talking about the new barmaid, Freda, at the Legion and when Ernie Sadler accidentally called Hilda by the name of Freda, Hilda thought Stan must have spent the night with her.
When Hilda went to the Legion to confront Freda, she assumed Hilda to be her mother's new home-help, as she had a bad leg. Freda explained to Hilda that she got offers from a different man every night to walk her home, and she then invited them in for coffee. Consequently she couldn’t be sure that one of those men wasn’t Stan, although she didn’t remember a man with a moustache. Later, Eddie Yeats brought her round to the Rovers to prove she didn’t recognise Stan. Upon seeing her, Stan described her as a ‘bit flash’ and assumed she was Eddie’s new woman. When Hilda pointed Stan out to Freda she replied “ooh, I would be hard up, wouldn’t I?”
- Freda was played by Rita May, in her second role in the programme.