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It must have been about 1941, although the memory is a little vague about the date but I had just started school. My brother Frank and I were dressed hurriedly in warm clothing and with me on the shoulders of my uncle Bill, the family trooped off to the shelters situated behind the local colliery baths. The air raid sirens had gone and aircraft could be heard overhead heading towards Sheffield which was about twelve miles away. The sky glowed in that direction so I suppose the steel works were already taking a battering.

We spent most of the night in the shelter, a big adventure for me!

After the ‘All Clear’ sounded, we returned home for breakfast and then ushered off to school. My big brother walked with me through the village up to school. The ‘glow’ in the sky had not been Sheffield steel works it had been our school. No School today! All the kids were jumping about in excitement Frank and I included.

Apparently a stray bomb, had set fire to our school. We all ran home to tell our parents and thought it great that there would be no school for ages.... Not to be... We were all rounded up from our homes and told that everyone would from now on meet in the top rooms of the local pub.

Never mind, but it showed that Hitler was not even a good excuse to wag school!

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