大象传媒

My sister and I were evacuated from Flixton (close to the heavy industry at Trafford Park, Manchester)to my Grandmother's home approximately 4 miles outside Marlborough.

To get to Marlborough, we had to endure a train journey which took all day (changing, of course, at Crewe!) It was an awful trip for my mother with two young girls, and most of the time we did not have a seat.

Grandma lived at Manton Down Racing Stables, where beautiful, thoroughbred horses were languishing. My Gran lived there because my uncle, her youngest son, was formerly employed as a stable lad with the outfit. He was called up (to the Veterinary Corp) and she was allowed to continue to live there until he returned.

The stables were in the form of a huge square brick courtyard, with a circle of grass in the centre and a monument in the middle of the grass.

We lived in a flat above the stables and this comprised many rooms along one section of the square. We could hear the horses stomping about underneath. The walls were ivy covered and it looked very attractive. I can still remember the odour of the old building. At the opposite side to the main entrance (huge double doors), there was a smaller door leading out to some woods.

Just outside the courtyard, there was a small chapel and some pig pens containing great big snorting piggies! I was forever leaning over their enclosure to watch them snuffling about. One or two remaining older men exercised the remaining horses and I was fascinated, as the horses seemed huge.

When I was 5, I had to attend a village school in the nearby hamlet of Rockley. To get there I went over the downs and into the little village. There was only one classroom and one teacher for all ages. In the wintertime the downs would be covered in deep snow and it was quite a trek.

When we first arrived at Manton, my sister was not well with a continuing illness causing swollen glands. This turned out to be caused by TB and my grandmother took her to Savernake Hospital and she was admitted and operated on immediately. She was there for 19 weeks and we were only allowed to visit once per week.

There were one or two other families living nearby and a large house where the owner lived. In those days, the apprentices were in the power of the owner and could actually be horsewhipped for misdemeanours.

There were no local shops and we had to walk into Marlborough for every item needed to survive (no fridge and certainly no freezer). We could go over the downs or via country lanes and the main road - not much traffic at this time. Whatever, for little girls it always seemed a long, long way.

We had very few toys and had to amuse ourselves and I have very happy memories of running around and playing in this delightful area.

It was very peaceful and quiet and we hardly knew that there was a war on, which was quite different from when we returned to Flixton. Wellies and gaberdine on the landing at night, ready for when the air raid siren went off and we had to dash to the shelter.

Like many people during the war, my mother could recognise the different planes going over by the sound of the engines. She always knew whether they were English or German.

It was a hard life for women coping with keeping children and themselves clean and tidy, but somehow they managed. I know my grandmother always seemed to be washing by hand and drying the clothes around the fire in winter - then there was all the ironing, using an iron that you warmed on the grate.

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