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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Mr Lindley and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

I worked at Dodworth Colliery during the war; I was a fitter, keeping the machinery going. We worked long hours keeping things in order.

You had to join the AFS or Home Guard etc so I choose to go in the AFS. We had to go to the main fire station at Barnsley. They taught me how to work the pumps, run out with the hose, lift men etc. They fitted me out with a uniform and gave me a hatchet. I was actually working at Redbrook Colliery at the time.

When Sheffield was being bombed we had to go into the shelters until the raid was over.

I used to go to work on a bike with the light covered up. When I came home on afters on the bike if a raid was on my parents would be in the shelter but I could see all the flashes on the way home and see the glow from the fires.

We used to go to the dances or pictures on a weekend (Saturday).

We saw a lot of American forces, the Yanks, who were stationed at Stainborough. They came to the dances at the ‘Institute’ on the High Street. We got on with them OK though. The Yanks used to give dances for us at Stainborough Castle.

We never felt hungry as we always had plenty of tatties!

A plane came down at Pogmoor. We went and got some Perspex off the plane and made some rings out of it. We got the stones to put in them out of old brooches.

Our air raid shelter was in the next-door neighbour’s garden, it was an Anderson Shelter.

We kept hens and ducks. Mum used to boil peelings up and feed them on scraps. One of my uncles came and said the ‘boiling’ smelt good enough for him to eat.

I can remember once getting some extra margarine.

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