´óÏó´«Ã½

Explore the ´óÏó´«Ã½
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

´óÏó´«Ã½ Homepage
´óÏó´«Ã½ History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

Wartime in West Felton, a Shropshire village

by Genevieve

You are browsing in:

Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed byÌý
Genevieve
People in story:Ìý
Beatrice Ivy Jones
Location of story:Ìý
West Felton, Shropshire
Background to story:Ìý
Civilian
Article ID:Ìý
A5703211
Contributed on:Ìý
12 September 2005

Wartime in West Felton, a Shropshire village

I was four at the beginning of the war. My father was Office Manager for a large milk company. This was a reserved occupation so he was not in the services, though he was not a conscientious objector. He was in the West Felton Home Guard and my mother was a housewife.

I have some memories of military presence in the area. The RAF were based at Rednal Airfield and there were white American servicemen at Queens Head, now the Golf Club. When convoys of US soldiers drove through the village they used to throw dozens of packets of chewing gum out to us children — we thought it was great! I remember a Polish serviceman coming up from Rednal Camp and asking me ‘Which way to Knockin?’ A Polish airman made my brother a lead parrot which used to swing on a stand. All the other children loved it so much that he made a load of them and took them to school. There was a German prisoner of war camp at Mile End, and prisoners of war, mostly Italians, worked in the village and on the local farms.

Our Ration Books came from the Food Office, now Bellan House by Park Gates in Oswestry. The thing I most remember about rationing was no sweets or fruit. What I hated most was powdered egg, and I remember eating Hasty Pudding at that time. At least we benefited from living in the country by having rabbits, eggs and vegetables.

We wore practical home-made clothes but had nothing different to wear for special occasions. I went to school in West Felton. Our family did not take in evacuees but there were some in our school. They came from Liverpool, Birkenhead and Wallasey. One I remember was Dorothy Blythe, and she took my lovely Silver Cross doll’s pram home with her.

We did not travel for entertainment but there were dances in the village. I was too young to go to dances but I remember seeing a sign saying two shillings and sixpence (2/6d) for entrance to a dance.

A couple of other things: I remember seeing Spitfires taking off and landing, and one plane crashing at Twyford. I saw the plane still smouldering. The other thing is the removal of all the ornamental railings from every house to be used for making guns and shells.

This story was collected by Yoland Brown and submitted to the People’s War site by Graham Brown of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Beatrice Ivy Jones and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

Childhood and Evacuation Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the ´óÏó´«Ã½. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy
Ìý