大象传媒

Your lunch time programme from St James's Park this last week has triggered off many memories of my childhood.
I was aged 4 in 1939 and during the Manchester blitz we lived in Timperley which is 10 miles south of Manchester and 2 miles from the industrial area of Broadheath. The wail of the air raid siren created a picture of our air raid shelter which was a Steel table with mesh metal sides rather like a cage, that was kept in the house.I have heard of many people who had Anderson shelters in their garden but know of no one else who had one like ours. My mother made up our beds underneath it and my sister Hilda and I slept under it for what seemed like many months.Mum and Flo Rogerson from next door knitting away the hours whilst the bombs were dropping all around us.
Flo,s husband Albert was in the ARP and I rember him coming in after tha "All clear" had sounded one night and him taking me outside and sitting me on the gate and we watched Manchester burn, we could see the red glow in the sky 10 m iles away. Strangely I dont ever remember being frightened it was part of our lives.
We had a very large garden and as my Dad was an Engine Driver he was in a "reseved occupation" and so was able to look after it.He grew rows of lettuce,potatoes,carrotts,peas beans you could die for, nothing tastes quite like vegetables straight from the garden. Mum had some toffee jars in which she would salt away the runner beans,she sliced them up then put them in the jars in rows with a layer of salt in between each row I couldnt tell you how long they would keep like that but do remember having them well into the winter.
My grandmother had 2 apple trees in her garden and she stored the apples upstairs on the top of the wardrobes carefully placed about 3 ins apart and we had the most lovely aspple pies all winter long. Her house always smelt of apples.
As children growing up during those terrible days I cannot ever remember being hungry or frightened,all due to our parents who kept gowing doing the best they could in difficult times feeding us and keeping us as safe an happy as they could.They were some of the unsung heroes of the Home Front

Beryl Lancaster

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