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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Mike Sharman of the CSV 大象传媒 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of Charles Littlewood and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions,
VILLAGE LIFE
October 1940 holds a special place in the Littlewood family's memory. Mother
of five, Ethel, was 10 miles away from her village (Asfordby Leics) helping at the
birth of her first grandchild John. Ethel's oldest daughter was about to give
birth in a wild west look-a-like shack perched on a steep bank. Four families
were unlucky enough to share squalid living conditions, even by the standards of
wartime Britain. Oil lamps provided the glow to lift the early evening gloom.
Cooking was done on a rickety black iron stove. Water was bucketed in after a
short walk to a single dribbling tap. You placed your bucket near the tap and
eventually someone whose utensil had been filled up would put yours under the
dribble etc.
Toilet facilities consisted of a small wooden hut with a large cut off dustbin and
in an - age of scarcity cut up newspapers sufficed pre - toilet rolls. Meanwhile
baby John's granddad, an aunt and uncle were getting ready for work in
Asfordby, managing on slightly more modern facilities. They at least had inside
water and gaslight downstairs.
At about 7 am without the new baby's birth having yet been telegraphed to the
village (no one had phones or cars in those days) the air-raid siren had just
finished its wailing warning, when an absolute earthquake seemed to shake the
whole street. Windows, doors, panes of glass, cups, saucers, everything
unsecured crashed and banged for what seemed like an age, but must have been
only a few minutes. Five people had been killed, including a small infant hit by a
crashing door.
Upheaval was everywhere. The good side of all the turmoil was that the
Littlewood's moved next door, which was fully fitted with gas and electricity but
the rent went up to 5s 6d per week!.

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