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I lived at Easington Colliery in County Durham during the war and when I was about 9 years old a German plane bombed the big hotel there known locally as ‘The Trust’, and some of the surrounding streets. Several families were affected and some had family members killed. If you look at the building now which used to be the Trust you can still see marks where the bombs hit. My friends and I used to stand in the fields and watch the planes coming over, it was fascinating but we weren’t scared.

Easington Colliery is on the coast and German planes targeted the coastline because of the docks, particularly the big docks at Sunderland, 10 miles away. But they also made a target of the coalmines in East Durham, many of which were on or near the coast.

I came from a family of 14 and my Mother used to sell the sweet ration coupons to those neighbours who could afford to buy them. So I never had any sweets, but I wasn’t bothered and the money was used to buy food for all the family. Sometimes the money was used to go to the local fish and chip shop to buy lots of chips, which were put on a plate in the centre of the table with margarine and bread and everyone helped themselves. Clothing coupons were also sometimes sold and I remember once some being sold to a lady saving up to buy enough material for a wedding dress. Coming from a big family I used to be one of the lucky people who got food and clothing parcels from America. Again my Mother used the opportunity to raise money for the whole family and sometimes sold the clothes. I used to see other children walking around wearing the clothes that were intended for me. But my Mam was doing her best, using her initiative and I didn’t care, I was happy enough with very little and enjoyed playing with my friends (never bored). Coming from a big family we had to have 2 sittings for dinner, the youngest children and our parents ate first and the older children (including me) ate second. If you were lucky there would be some meat left!

During the war whenever you saw a queue and just joined it, you had no idea what was being sold, but just took the opportunity to perhaps get something on ration that you hadn’t had for a while. I used to queue for my Father’s cigarettes which were divvied up 5 at a time. Some regulars at the tobacconist got extra rations from ‘under the counter’. As metal was scarce so were razor blades and you got them from the Barber, usually no more than 2 at a time!

A friend of the family Mr Maddison told the tale of when he went to get some beer from the local club as he had heard they had some and you had to get in quick before they sold out. Usually a delivery of beer as it was so small compared to demand, only lasted a couple of hours before it ran dry. Mr Maddison approached ‘Toeplate’ Harrison who asked for his ID — Mr Maddison had forgotten it but as ‘Toeplate’ was one of his neighbours and knew him well he thought he could get away without his ID and actually pleaded so that he could get to the club before the beer ran out. ‘Toeplate’, playing by the rules, refused and Mr Maddison had to trail back home. When he finally made it back with his ID and then got to the club — guess what — the beer had all gone. He was not too happy with his neighbour ‘Toeplate’.

I never had a bike when I was a lad, but I did use a shop bike to deliver rations for a local grocer. Mr Stewart, the shopkeeper at the Eastern Waterworks, drove ARP ambulances and often had to drive them in the dark with most of the headlights blacked out. On one occasion while he was driving an ambulance at night he was chased down the road by a German fighter plane, but lived to drive another day!

I also helped a man called Limpy Collings who had a horse and cart which he used to move people who had been bombed out of their homes. Blackhall Rocks had an Army Camp with Nissan Huts and so that whole area was also a big target meaning more people lost homes and sometimes their lives. We moved people from Easington to Blackhall just after the war so that the army huts could be used by people who were unable to obtain housing in Easington. The Nissan Huts were used to house families for quite a while after the war until new housing could be built.

Disclaimer: this story was submitted by Angela Stobbart at County Hall Members’ Resource Centre on behalf of Councillor Len O’Donnell.

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