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CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF LOWER PILSLEY, DERBYSHIRE.

This story was submitted by Jo Taylor on behalf of COLIN COOKE and has been added to the site with his permission.

One memory that stick鈥檚 in my mind was the time鈥檚 that it rained thin strips of silver foil. Apparently, enemy aircraft to fool our radar systems dropped the foil, but as kids of early school ages we thought it was great fun.
Another fun time for us in those days was every time the air raid sirens sounded; we all ran to the shelters, gas masks in hand, it was quite exciting.

Our treat of the month was being allowed to go to the cinema on a Saturday afternoon, this was known as the tupenny rush, and this was so because the price to get in on a Saturday was just two old pennies. Because sweets were rationed throughout the war we had to find alternative nibbles to take with us, and our answer to that was to raid the allotments, [we all had allotments in those days] and off we would go with a bunch of carrot鈥檚, half a turnip, or perhaps a pocket full of pea鈥檚.

As children we spent many hours watching the workmen removing iron railings and iron gates from around peoples front gardens. All this scrap iron was used to help the war effort as it was recycled and used for manufacturing guns, ammunitions, etc.

During those times we hadn鈥檛 even heard of television, our pleasure then was listening to the wireless [radio]. Having no electricity in the house, only gas, meant that the radio鈥檚 had to be battery powered; the type of battery used was very much like a car battery, it was filled with acid. Every Saturday morning I had to take the battery to be recharged. The shop I had to take it to was about a mile and a half away so that meant I had a three mile walk which was a long way for a six year old. Getting ready to take the battery I always had to put on the same pair of trousers, the reason being was that the batteries used to leak the acid and burn holes in my trousers.

Late one afternoon, I think it was during the summer holidays, I was out playing with my friends in our home village of Waterloo, when we heard the droning of an aeroplane, and as we looked up we saw the plane which was flying very low and obviously in trouble getting lower and lower. We ran as a group across the fields in the same direction as the troubled aircraft. We eventually came to the site where the aircraft had landed and could not believe our eyes.
The aircraft had landed safely near the base of Pilsley Pit tip and was already being loaded onto a big trailer. From the day I witnessed this incident all those years ago it was in my mind that it was a German aircraft, but as I began to write this article I now realise it must have been one of our own, otherwise we would have heard the sirens and we did not on that occasion.

Everything was in short supply during those years, and that included cars, only one person in the village owned a car and that was the local midwife, why she had the car could never be understood, she must have been good at being a midwife but every one knew she was never going to make a driver as that car never travelled any faster than we could run.

As years go by and I look back on those days I realise just how hard it must have been for our mothers or guardians who had to feed and clothe us when both food and clothing was rationed and our fathers were away fighting the war. Thank goodness it came to an end when it did.

Colin Cooke.

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