大象传媒

Mr Chamberlain had been in Germany for talks and returned saying 鈥淧eace in our Time鈥�, in September 1939. Shortly after, on a warm Sunday morning, I was sent a message to Willington Square, from my home in Wallsend. I was skipping along quite happily, when there was an awful wailing sound. A group of men on the other side of the road told me to hurry home as there was an air raid.

Shortly after we were to be evacuated, and had to go to school early one morning, with our clothes in a bag. My brother and I just had a sand bag each. We were marched to the station and taken to Hexham cattle market where we were put into pens to await the coach to take the first of us to different places. We were given a bag of cakes which were very dry, but were a veritable feast to us as in 1930 there was a depression and very little work.

A coach took some of us to a place called Cambo and to our different billets. My Brother and I went to a place called Scots Gap, on a farm. He was in one cottage and I was in another. The farmhouse was owned by a Gentleman farmer. When we arrived it was very hot so we were given fresh milk bread and butter and we had a picnic.

I stayed with a young couple and their niece and my bother stayed with an elderly couple who had no children. Mr Craven who I stayed with looked after the horses and the other one looked after the cows.

The school we went to was quite a distance, and most of the time we had to walk there. It was just one large room divided by partitions. There was one teacher and one from the town. So at times our teacher took us for nature study walks which I loved. We also did the garden.

At Christmas there was a party in the Church Hall which was just around the corner from Wallington Hall and Sir Charles and Lady Trevelian came and took part. Like everyone else they tried to get my brother to join in the dancing but to no avail as he thought it was sissy.

We helped in the hayfields; I could skin a rabbit and have it ready in the pot in twenty minutes. Quite an achievement!

Sunday night was the highlight of the week, we went to chapel. They had an anniversary and I received a bible for reading poetry. I still have the bible to this day.

Mrs Craven was very kind but firm and treated me the same as her nieces. One day I came in from play and my mother was there having a row with Mrs Craven. My bags were packed and my mother took me home that day. I was made to stand in queues and made to do housework and run after the family.

Lots of children drifted back to the towns and cities as things were very quiet. It was called the Phoney War. We had a brick shelter in the back yard to share with the family downstairs. My mother never made it comfortable or prepared anything for us as some parents did.

The raids started to get very bad and the Ack Ack guns weren鈥檛 very far from us and the noise was terrible. We got no rest. It was said that but I don鈥檛 know if it was true, that this area would have had more damage but for the guns. Everyone was asked to donate pots and pans and metal objects. All metal railings were taken from around buildings and parks and schools 鈥� the country wasn鈥檛 prepared for war and we were expecting to be invaded. Thank goodness it didn鈥檛 happen.

Once again we were evacuated and it was a reprieve for me to get away from all the work! My father had been given an allotment and I was able to supplement our meals. My sister had turned five and could be evacuated with my brother and myself. I was responsible for them. My sister and I went to Keenly near Allendale. My brother was taken to Corbridge to stay with two elderly sisters and their brother.

We stayed with a Mrs Chat a very gentile lady who looked after her old aunt who was bed bound. The cottage was on it鈥檚 own at the top of a hill and the place was very cosy. The table had a lovely cloth on it with china cups and saucers. She only had one friend who visited. The bed had a feather mattress and a patchwork quilt. It was lovely to get a good night鈥檚 sleep.

The only store was in Whitfield.It was all uphill coming back so I was able to shop for her and she was so kind and bought me lisle stockings and sweets. She got wool for me and taught me how to make jumpers for myself and my sister. We would also knit for the forces.

I went to the harvest festival and bought the vegetable afterwards. Mrs Chat was the caretaker of a small school and when she was ill I would go early and light the two fires in the school and clean up. It was child鈥檚 play after what I had to do at home.

We got milk and butter from Bells farm and Mrs Bell let me use the paddles and make butter into half pounds. I would collect the eggs on my way from to school. They were battery hens they must have been some of the first ones! Mrs Chat had lots of fruit trees and made her own jams and chutney. She washed the clothes in a wooden shed, got the water from a spring outside the cottage, chopped wood and told me which field to collect mushrooms from. She taught me the difference between mushrooms and toadstools.

The farmer would bring a rabbit or birds when he had been out shooting. The country people arranged ways of letting each other know if a German had landed. At Christmas the people of the next farm invited me and my sister to go and sing carols for their guest. We were given a large piece of Christmas cake with a slice of cheese fruit and money. I think they were just being kind because we couldn鈥檛 sing.

One day we went to Mrs Chat鈥檚 brother鈥檚 house which was a long walk over the hills. We had a lovely time with his family and he made us a sledge which he sent in the post. My sister and I were very lonely and started to visit four children from the same family and we transferred to their house.

It was the worst thing we could have done as the house was terrible, the father was lazy and the other two evacuees and me and my sister were terrified of the mother.

I learned to milk the cow they had. If the sheep had twin lambs one might be neglected so I would milk the goat and bottle feed the lamb. I loved this job!

We were told we would be paid to spread the manure over the fields but we weren鈥檛 paid for it. When any of us did anything wrong the mother would stand over us with a stick in her hand and make us beg for forgiveness.

After she had done the washing I would have to wash mine and my sister鈥檚 clothes in the dirty water. Parents were only supposed to visit every six weeks let people know when they would visit. My mother was a law unto herself and visited when she wanted. Mrs Chat was too nice to complain but when she turned up at the Somers there was a row and we were taken home once again.

I could not have been happier!

We all had an awful itch and must have had scabies for some time and my mother reported this to the authorities. My mother had a job now and I had more work to do.

While we were away Wallsend had some bad air raids, mines had been dropped on Holly Avenue which ran parallel to the railway line and Swan Hunter shipyard. Two houses were hit and two families killed except for a baby of a few months old who is still alive today.

My mother sent me to work for a Jewish family but soon I had to come home again. I had been going with a boy for a while and because I wasn鈥檛 earning I wasn鈥檛 allowed out much and had very little pocket money so I found a job for myself. There were four elderly sisters and a brother. They had only had one young woman who was there before me who had come from an orphanage before being called up into the Army. She had met a soldier and they married so she had a lucky escape as there was not much hope of meeting anyone when you worked in service in those days. They got their pound of flesh. My mother wanted me home again to run after her but this time my father intervened.

They were very respectable people. The attic room I was in was very comfortable but if there was an air raid it was a long way to the cellar which was stocked with food as the family had a high-class grocery store.

The government stipulated that we only have five inches of water in the bath but the working classes didn鈥檛 have baths in their houses anyway. I was ill at home for a few days and the lady of the house wasn鈥檛 at all pleased so I left and was five months pregnant before anyone at home had noticed. Even though I lived in the country I didn鈥檛 know the facts of life or haw a baby was born.

The day I told my boyfriend he had received his call up papers so we married on his first leave and I made a tea. The cake was like sawdust as it was made of synthetic ingredients. I had no flowers, no taxi and I had to clean the house before I went to the registry office. Then I had to wait on everyone when we returned.

I had anaemia, low blood pressure and suffered from malnutrition and was sent to Gilsland Spa which had been turned into a maternity home during the war. Women were there from all over the country to get away from the bombing. Everyone but the nurses and matron and an old man were pregnant.

The unmarried mothers, some who had been put out by their families had to work until they went into labour to pay for their keep. The army paid for me. They had their own home farm so we had good food and we made our own enjoyment. Someone would play the piano and we did ballroom dancing bump to bump. We had a good laugh!

The older women helped the younger ones, walked the floor with them when they were in labour. We helped the unmarried mothers with their work and we were lucky to have been married ourselves. I was looking forward to having a rest after the baby was born but they had started to get mothers out of bed three days after the birth.

Victory over Japan happened when I was a few months pregnant and then the war with Germany followed.

A lot of good came out of the war, women had a better social life and not many went back to living in as domestics as it was slavery 鈥� you couldn鈥檛 call your life your own. Lots of women were liberated and it did away with a lot of the class system. I often wish I had been older so I could have got away from home and the drudgery.

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