大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department and Andrew Edwards from Darton Community School on behalf of Christine GOulding and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

We had an outhouse outside the back door and inside we kept the individual gas masks and a big one to put babies in. There was still rationing up until the early 1950鈥檚. We had sweet rationing; when it did finish we played with them.

My Father was exempt from the army on health grounds. He worked in Sheffield Steel Works and was often involved in air raids and had to make his way to the shelters.

My Mother worked in the munitions in Sheffield. She made bullets and cartridges, not tanks etc.

We lived on Chapel Street in Birdwell and we had an Anderson Shelter. When the sirens went we had to make our way to the shelter. We had to take enough food to last a while.

We had blackout blinds on the windows. If any light showed the Homeguard came and asked you to turn off the lights. If you needed to go out a night you had to feel your way and often people bumped into each other. The bombs that dropped on Birdwell were mainly Doodle Bugs.

Food wise there were dried eggs in tins and everybody grew their own vegetables. People didn鈥檛 get very much meat so you had to make it last. Babies born in the war were given rations by their parents. For years after the war we had tinned food, which had been tinned before the war. There was no sell by date on it so many people ate food that was out of date because canning was the best way to preserve it. Another way of preserving was putting them in glass jars with water and sugar or salt and then putting them in the oven to seal the air out. People made the summer food last until the winter. There were no bananas etc. We did occasionally get a crate of oranges and it took a while for trade to set back up again.

To go towards tanks and bullets people donated their gates and fences, which was melted down.

Where my Grandparents lived there was a large communal shelter and the whole street went in. When we played in it there was no doors and it was all wet.

When I was three I went to Nursery and in the afternoons we had camp beds to sleep in whether we wanted to or not.

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