大象传媒

When war broke out in the summer of 1939 I had just celebtrated my sixth birthday. I remember clearly several local war events.

The one event I remember most graphically was the evening of September 16th 1940, which was Ossett's only Air-raid. It was said at the time that it may have been the result of a stray German bomber escaping from a raid on a nearby city. There was the noise of a second plane some minutes later which neighbours claimed to be a Spitfire fighter plane.
But before the Spitfire passed over our only downstairs room and the single upstairs bedroom were bomb-blasted.
Earlier that evening the downstairs room-cum-kitchen had been tranquil. We had placed the black, homemade shutter squares over the windows as darkness fell. My father sat reading. My mother giving me a good soaping as I sat on the draining board, with my feet in the sink. The solid stone wall in front of me saved me from the high explosive blast that was to come. A piercing scream overhead, prompting my father to shout "it's a bomb" led my mother to run to the wireless (radio) to switch it off!My father dived under the long pine table under the window. The explosion created utter darkness and the spots of dirt I felt on my nude body were later revealed to be soot spewed out from the old iron fireplace and giving a light coating over all the room. When later cleaning up by candle light, we found, under the pine table, a piece of metal of half inch thick, the size of a mans hand. It was too hot to pick up.

When dawn broke we looked out from our glassless window and saw the devastation. Forty yards away there was a long gap where the over-grown hawthorn hedge had been. The farmers large hen huts were missing from the further side of the hedge there was a scattering of feathers and poultry parts. Further away, our neighbours workshop showed signs of the devastation. Just beyond this the two long rows of houses in Hope Street had lost all their windows, upstairs and downstairs, some with curtains waving on the outside.
It was the same for houses at a greater distance and some in Manor Road.
The line of ten high explosive bombs that landed in Ossett landed between the houses. Additionally, approximately twenty incendiary bombs drifted into Gawthorpe and Flushdyke yet no one was killed and there was very little report of injury. Local people said it was a miracle. I think it was in thankfulness for this that our neighbour opened his damaged garden in aid of the war effort.

At his gate a gift was given (I think it was for "Wings for Victory") and in return a tiny painted metal spitfire was received. I went to visit the crater and received this replica. I still have a 1940's photograph with the Spitfire pinned to my lapel.

The bombing on Ossett was not enough to keep us away from school. We were quickly back to Southdale School, where I learnt that two classmates were out, and near where a bomb dropped. All the class and I think all the school that morning had experiences to talk about but the most spectactular was Gerald Stephenson's story; he was blasted into a dustbin, with few ill effects.

My wife's great grandad began the plumbing business of J A Fawcett (Joseph Arthur Fawcett). His workshop was next to the railway bridge at the top end of the Green. His son, Henry Rowland Fawcett, made a large dolls house for my wife Olive which was "split in two" (her words) with the blast. It was in the nearby house where the Fawcett's lived. Their telephone number was Ossett 20. Mr Horsnell's was Ossett 21.

May I finally add that Mr Fawcett did major work when the underground toilets were constructed in the Town Hall square. These were demolished after the war but a wall tile was recovered with the name J A Fawcett glazed on it.

I have been told that high explosive bomb no. four hit Dr Stokers hen hut.

Whilst other old houses at the entrance to Manor Lane have since the war been demolished, the house written about here remains. (2005).

In our small yard at the house (mentioned above) we erected our own Anderson (I think they named it?) shelter. One of my war-time experiences was to watch the Home Guard Unit practising manoeuvers in the Manor Road Recretation Ground. They would sometimes crawl over the ground. I remember a compassionate, loud speaking officer instructing an older member of the Home Guard who found it difficult to manoeuver in this way.

The streets, of necessity, were dimly lit. I would go to the Palladium cinema, in the centre of Ossett to see the big film and the war reports. Afterwards I would call in at the "Cabin" or the "Nip in" fish/chip shops.

At Southdale School I had a friend named Michael who was an evacuee from the South Coast. One day he told me that he and his family lived in the smallest home in Greatfield Road. It was the two storey annex of a large house which was divided up. Not long ago Michael returned to see the house.

The sirens sounded occasionally. There were the "buzzers" of the woollen mill and pits. Following 1941 we had an official leather bag into which we put my baby sister for protection. Then we pumped in air. The bag was used on one occasion only.

Early in the war it was decided by the Authorities that children should attend a school very near their home. Then there was the possibility of returning home when the air-raid siren sounded. I then attended Southdale School which was almost a mile distance. I was, therfore, directed to attend a new war time school which was set up in the now demolished Trinity Methodist Church on South Parade.

We were given a test to see how long it took to run from Trinity to our homes. Then the times were given to the teachers. My good friend Ken who was one year older and lived in Hope Street, took a longer time for the run. If I remmeber correctly, because of the times, I had to attend Trinity School and Ken was excused. The Trinity School experiment lasted only a short time, there were difficulties for teachers and scholars. Soon, I returned to Southdale and Ken returned to Spa Street School.

There were occasional air-raids on both nearby Wakefield and Dewsbury, and each town had its bomb victims. I experienced the beginning and the ending of the 1939-45 war in my Ossett situation.

The war begun for me, not via a wireless broadcast, but when a large aircraft flew very low on the western side of Ossett. I saw the 'plane flamed within the posts of our high gate in Manor Lane. It was an unusual sight and indicated that war had begun.

I received the news that the war had ended as I walked along Prospect Road in Ossett, with a large basket of bread, I had just collected at Oliver Myers bakery. I was an errand boy. The mill buzzers began to wail. A passer-by agreed that this must be the end of the war.

King George VI sent A4 size (approx) cardboard sheets to all schoolchildren thanking them for their war effort. Somewhere among my souvenirs I still have the sheet.

Near the end of the war, one of the new pilotless bomber planes was heard by Ossett folk to cut its engines. It glided onto Grange Moor.

I have in my possession five visual aids:-

1 The King George VI card
2 The 1940's photo with replica spitfire
3 The replica spitfire
4 Map of Ossett - September 1940 -
bomb placing
5 Map of local gardens - Manor Road

Afterthoughts (High Ex. Blombs).

On evening our family make our way up a dark drive to a large red-bricked house in Broadowler, Ossett. It was the home of Mr and Mrs Lee. The house still exists today 2005) but has a pinafore of council houses before it, where the dark drive once existed. Mr Lee was an invalid; there was one son Colin and he had six or seven grown sisters. We were going to a party where Mrs Lee directed the games and provided the late dinner. To my childhood surprise there were a goodly number of Ossett based soldiers present. We were entertaining the troops! (To digress, at a large mill half way along Wesley Street, which the Army had commondeered, young men from as far away as Scotland were "kitted out" and received their uniforms). One game I remember at this very enjoyable party was called "Sunrise". A large sheet was held vertically by two people in the middle of the room. A person with a lit candle crouched behind the sheet and moved the candle from one lower corner of the sheet diagonally across to the far top corner. The contestants, mainly soldiers, came one by one from another room and were told to closely watch the sunrise. Having arrived at the top of the sheet a water soaked cloth was promptly pushed into their face. I think I can say everyone really enjoyed the party.

Maybe several young men came to Ossett to receive their soldiers kit who were later to become "well known". One was Godfrey Evans, even then a first class cricketer for Kent, and later for England (v Australia 1948 etc). He went down to the Ossett Cricket Club and was promptly put into the second team. The story, I think, must have some element of truth in it. It would be difficult, in those days, to assess the many strangers at the Cricket Club. We are told he was put into the first team later. Ernest Steele of Derbyshire C.C.C. became a good servant of Ossett C.C. in post war years following his war time service in Ossett.

The only restaurant in town in those days was "Griffin and Sayers" at the entrance to Kingsway. We would queue at the nearby Co-op shops for our rations, bread, meat etc and go to Bainbridges small shop on the corner of Kingsway for our ration of sweets.

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