大象传媒

Explore the 大象传媒
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

大象传媒 Homepage
大象传媒 History
WW2 People's War Homepage Archive List Timeline About This Site

Contact Us

Contributed by听
Norfolk Adult Education Service
People in story:听
Edna Moore
Location of story:听
Norwich, Norfolk
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A3335113
Contributed on:听
27 November 2004

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sarah Housden of Norfolk Adult Education鈥檚 reminiscence team on behalf of Edna Moore and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I lived in Norwich during the war, with my husband and children. My oldest child, Beryl, was six when the war started. My husband was in the Auxiliary Fire Service and would often have to go on duty at night. I felt awful during air raids, really frightened, and would go into the cupboard under the stairs with Beryl at night. I still have a very vivid memory of a clock that was in there, ticking away throughout the night. I would even hear it in my dreams. My neighbour was a warden, and he would come in and say to me: 鈥淵ou鈥檒l be alright tonight, I鈥檓 on duty鈥.

We lived in Stafford Street near the Dereham Road, which was heavily bombed. One family in Stafford Street got a direct hit, but they all got out alive. I used to go and stay with my mother who lived on St Williams Way in Thorpe, away from the city centre.

I was, (and still am), a member of the Salvation Army, who helped people who had been bombed out. They had a hostel in St Giles, and I helped in the canteen by pouring out the teas.

My father had a tailoring factory in St Giles and I worked there as a dressmaker. With clothing being on coupons, I made all our clothes, including my husband鈥檚 jackets. I used to buy the material and Silco鈥檚 from Garlands in Norwich. I also had to make our Blackouts. I remember my son Nigel and a friend of his who lived nearby being really frightened of the Blackout. They鈥檇 come running inside when it started to get dark and wouldn鈥檛 want to go out again.

There was a really good community spirit during the war. Me and my neighbours would cook for each other and share our food. We helped each other out whenever anyone was short of anything. One of my neighbours even came in to sleep with me sometimes because I was so frightened when my husband Arnold was working at night.

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.

Family Life Category
Norfolk 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 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy