大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of "Harpurhey Child" and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was six years old in 1939, the middle child of three young children. I attended Christ Church School on Rochdale Road, Harpurhey. In September 1939 we were evacuated to Wardle (a part of Rochdale). My Mother insisted on going with us, and as three children and one adult was a difficult sized group to keep together , we were lodged with the Wardle Town Clerk.

Nothing much happened war-wise in the following months, and we stayed in Wardle until early 1940. Whilst in Wardle, we went to school part-time. I seem to remember that the evacuees went to school in the mornings and the local children in the afternoons.

My Father was a bricklayer by trade. He was 39 years old in 1939, and having had a serious road accident in the early 1930s, was not called up, but was seconded to the War Department. In the Manchester Blitz, he was out all night working with a group that were shoring up bombed buildings to prevent collapse. It was dangerous work. Sometimes in daylight it was decided that buildings were beyond saving and were demolished. He later went on to building brick and concrete air raid shelters which, in the built-up areas of Manchester where there were no gardens, were built on the roads and side streets, there being much less traffic in those days.

I was too young to remember what life had been like before rationing, but was aware of food shortages and long queues.

At the end of the war, I was taken out to see the street lights turned on, I couldn't believe the difference from the long "Blackout".

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