大象传媒

The weekend before the war started we heard that the coop had blackout paper in case of air raids. We then heard that Farnons in Newcastle had blackout material so my mother went to get some material and my mother sewed the blackout material onto Army blankets to hang at the windows. On Sunday 3 September there was an announcement by Chamberlain that war was declared. A few minutes later the air raid siren went off. My sister was out at the time and my mother was so worried about her. However, some people had taken my sister in while the air raid was on. That weekend an Anderson shelter was delivered and my father dug a hole for it and covered the top with soil. He then made a wooden door and dug turf up from a farmer鈥檚 field to cover the top to disguise it. Inside he used an old conveyer belt for flooring and my mother put down some mats. Two neighbours used to come in and spend the night with us when the sirens went off. I can remember what a high pitched sound it was, we were always so relieved to hear the single siren sound the all clear.

I was 12 years old and had just started Gosforth Grammar School. We couldn鈥檛 go to school for the whole of the first term because the school didn鈥檛 have air raid shelters. We had to collect work and take it back each week.

I remember a bomb hitting a warehouse in New Bridge Street in Newcastle and it was ablaze for days. The ruins remained for years afterwards.

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