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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Kenneth Waldron and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."
I lived at 35 Sheffield Road, Goldthorpe. In the Sheffield Blitz an air raid siren went and Grandad Haigh came and told both lads to get under the grand piano in the dark. He made them sit there while stood at the front door. They could hear the bangs and see the flashes and could hear the shrapnel. I tried to go outside but Grandad told me to go back inside. I thought that Mother and Grandmother were under the stairs. When daylight came we went collecting shrapnel especially from the market stalls. It was a big thing to have a piece of shrapnel but everyone had some really.

A big thing I remember about the war was the home guard. They used to have parades and exercises. The kids used to spy whilst they were doing the exercises.

Rationing — All the men that were left had an allotment, the kids used to dig and learn how to grow the best crops everyone had hen’s and a few had pigs.

Scraps had to be saved to feed the hens and pigs, nothing went to waste. People with pigs weren’t allowed to kill them, they were supposed to send them away to be killed. But people managed to get round it. Every Sunday dinner was frozen New Zealand lamb. I don’t like lamb now. Everyone used to keep rabbits in hutches in the coal place.

One Christmas Mother got me up and I was first in the queue at the greengrocers because it was rumoured that there were going to leave some oranges. I queued from 5 am until 9 am. We got 2 oranges and 2 apples. Not many young men stayed mainly 30 years plus and later some Bevin Boys came.

Granny had a stew pot that hung above the fire. She used to put cow heels, shin meat and trotters into it and it stayed there all week.

Gas masks had to be carried all day. At school it was kept under the desk and when I reached for it one day I got a splinter right down my fingernail. Mum couldn’t get it out so she sent me to see Dr Mills who proceeded to cut down my finger nail and I fainted.

Every other house on Doncaster Road had a shelter, everyone helped to dig them in but when it rained they filled with water, so they built us a big communal brick one. But we used the one in the school yard, it didn’t have any facilities so we used the toilets in the school yard.

Grandad Haigh died, which left Grandma on her own. When the evacuees came Grandma moved in with us and slept with Mum. The family that moved into Grandma’s was a mother and four daughters including twins who were my age, so we played together. They stayed for 12 to 18 months.

Mum remarried, he was from Mexbrough, Jack Phillips and I had another brother. . He was in the army and the weekend they got married he was on embarkation leave. I can remember him carrying me on his shoulder on his wedding day, nobody had ever done that before. Then he was sent to India. Then the telegram boy came. If you saw the telegram boy coming you knew someone had died or was missing, he had a uniform and a little red bike. I think he died from dysentery.

Everyone was friendly and there was a camaraderie that I haven’t seen since. Women would help others that had a baby and people would go and sit with sick people.

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