大象传媒

part 2

Defences for Barrow
In December, 1940, I was thirteen. I'd not be fourteen until January 4th but in them days you could leave school at the Christmas if you had a job to go to. Otherwise you had to do another term. Herbert Winder's garage, which I mentioned earlier, was at the end of our street, Abbot's Vale. I used to hang around there a lot.
They had delivered sheds for all the army and air force camps and the planned airfields at Barrow and they were stored in a big field called the Red Waters. That was before I left school but Winders got the job of delivering them to all the sites for camps around Barrow so I got a job there. The sheds came in sections and were very heavy and I used to help with the loading and unloading.
One day one of the lorries got stuck in a field and they got another lorry to pull it out but that got stuck too. Next day they fetched the breakdown truck and my boss said "You'll have to drive it."
I said "I can't I'm only fourteen!"
He said "You can. I've seen you driving."
We went back to the garage - one breakdown truck pulling two lorries with him, his driver and me driving them.
We delivered sheds onto Walney, not just for the camp, but for the airfield which was being built.
At that time all those tipping lorries came for Laings - fifty or sixty wagons came on the railway. They were put in a siding at Old Barrow which is just alongside Walney bridge. They were unloaded there and then driven across to Walney Island. They were all brand new Dodge wagons, come from America. The drivers weren't very particular. The airfield was being got under way and if something happened to one of the wagons they just left it and got another, similarly if one broke down, just went and got another.
After the huts and the wagons the next things to appear were what were called salamanders. They were like big oil drums, filled with stuff like dirty black oil. It smelt dreadful. The soldiers who had the job of delivering them and setting them up all around the town were mostly conscientious objectors. It was a terrible job. When they were lit they sent up a dense black smoke and that was their purpose, to set up smoke screens so that German 'planes could not see where to drop their bombs.
Then they brought the barrage balloons and they were flown around the town. With them came the WAAFs because it was largely the WAAFs who looked after them.
Next they brought in the big anti-aircraft guns and set them up around the town and on Walney and at Rampside.
When I started at Herbert Winders he used to buy old cars and he had about a dozen, his garage was full and when the war came they started to make these cars into ambulances. They cut the backs off and altered them. Then after the war the cars he had left were quite valuable because you couldn't buy new cars and cars were scarce.
On the verge of war he'd bought a coach, a new one and they took that off him to be an ambulance. After the war they brought it back but he told them they could keep it and pay him for it.
I didn't stay at Winders. About the time they brought in the big guns I left and went to Vickers.
Working at Vickers
Whilst I know the circumstances of how things are made lots of people have no idea how engineering is carried out. My learning began really at Vickers.
When you joined Vickers you could be an office boy, a store boy, a check boy, a rivet lotter or a bogey driver.
Whilst I was there there were one or two air raids and a couple of bombs dropped but they soon sorted them out. It鈥檚 surprising how quickly they got the factory back into gear when anything happened.
When I was there they started Lady drivers in the little bogey which I drove and which took things to different parts of the yard. I was chosen to be the one who taught the first lady bogey driver at Vickers. She was called Joan Miller and she was the daughter of Alderman Miller. She was the first bogey girl in Vickers. Eventually there were more taken on and in the end there were about twenty of them.
We drove electric bogeys and had access to every department and so you saw how things were made from start to finish. It was a good education because you'd be at the foundry collecting ingots and you saw them going through and collected the finished article. I didn't realise it at the time, it was afterwards that I appreciated how much I'd learnt.
In addition to the electric bogeys they'd about half a dozen which were petrol and it was everybody's ambition to drive one of them because they had gears. I drove a little three-wheeler type and they were used to deliver fuel to the retorts. We used to go to the sidings and load up, then up to the foundry and tip it. It was back and forth up to the foundries and keep them going with fuel. It was quite a hazardous job really because they were quite narrow places that you had to go into so you had to be pretty skilful to get in. There were other types of jobs as well.
One vehicle we called Leaping Lena. It was a three wheeler and it used to buckle over as you went over the railway lines. It wobbled all over the place. It used to carry oxygen bottles. They were needed all over the place so delivery was a frequent job. One of the fellows on this job as a labourer was called Butcher Moore. They put up big tanks wherever there was space, big water tanks and he used to swim every day in these water tanks. Quite a character!
I become an Apprentice
Me dad had decided he was going to get some glass for the greenhouse. Now at that time you couldn't get clear glass, only half-finished glass which was like frosted glass. So, he went down to this local firm, Ross and Company to get some and asked if they wanted a plumber. They did so I had to go there as apprentice plumber.
I was very well treated and got a really god education, as I did at Vickers because I was always interested in what was going on. The chap I worked with was very good and we used to get all the important work in the town; the Town Hall work, hospital work, central heating work and eventually the work for the Ministry of Supply.
We had to go round all the camps and the aerodromes, like Cark and Walney Island, doing maintenance work and fixing things, for the government.
We went out to Roanhend, for example, where the mines used to be and where there was an old building. We ha to convert it into a cooking centre so as if people were bombed out they could make food there and then bring it back into the town for those who had been bombed. They could also use the centre to make school meals and the like. We set up other centres. One we did was at Aldingham where we converted an old house into a cooking centre. Another was at Roosecote and one we did at Roose. That was all interesting work because it was not normal work. It was only in war time that these things were required and firms like Ross' would be asked to do such things. War meant you got to do these jobs.
One of the jobs we had to do was see to the Town Hall Clock because it got damaged. I had the job of taking the glass out and putting a metal face in. After the war I had the job of putting the glass back.
Service on the Home Front
If you were old enough you had to join one of the services operating on the home front.
You could be in the Home Guard. You could be an Air Raid Warden, Fire Watcher, join the Auxiliary Fire Brigade, or the Auxiliary Police but you had to be in one of these if you were of age.
My dad was in the Home Guard. He was also an Air Raid Warden. My two brothers, who worked on the railways and were in reserved occupations, were both in the Home Guard. On top of that if you weren't of age you could be a dispatch rider for the Civil Defence. There were always jobs to do and as a young lad it was all very interesting and you were never bored.
The Home Guard used to have these mock battles with the soldiers stationed around the area. The Scots, The Black Watch, were stationed at Dalton and they had to come into the town and try to take it off the Home Guard. They came into the town and they were professionals and they were right rough with the Home Guard, knocked the hell out of them. That was how things were done in them days.
I decided to join the ATC because if I had to see active service I wanted to join the RAF and I thought it would improve my chances of getting in. In the ATC I got into the band. We used to get invited to different parades. One week we were without a drum major and we borrowed one from the WAFFs. She was a smasher and a distraction so on that occasion a lot of wrong notes were played.
The war had its lighter moments. There were dances but before you asked one of the ATS or WAAF girls if you could see her home you had to ask where she was based because if it was somewhere like Rampside you faced a three mile walk there and a three mile walk back.
It was a good time in some ways apart from the bombing.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Edwina Davies on behalf of Mr Cyril Barker, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.