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I was born in 1916 and married just before the War. My husband was a miner. I was waiting for my call-up papers when I fell pregnant with my first child. My daughter Yvonne was born in 1941.
We lived in Disraeli Street Blyth, where an air-raid shelter served the whole street. I went to my parents’ house in Bedlington, to have my baby, as I felt safer there. I had wonderful care from the doctor who had always looked after me, but I was concerned about my baby’s safety. My mam and auntie, who was an expert in child birth, helped to deliver my baby. The day after she was born I watched as a bomb was dropped at Whitley Bay. We could see the wreckage.
The next door neighbour in Bedlington had a posh shelter and I stayed with my parents most weekends, while my husband was working night shift. Mining was a reserved occupation. The miners could not come up to the surface during a raid. My social outings were to the Bedlington Catholic club where a Saturday night dance was held. A lot of soldiers used to join in the dancing and it was good fun. I only remember one bomb being dropped in Bedlington and the only casualty was a cow!
When we were at home during the week, my elderly neighbour used to walk around each evening to fetch my pram, which he used to put in a passage-way in his house. This was for safety as there weren’t any windows. When the sirens sounded I used to wrap Yvonne up and carry her next door, where we waited in the passage. I preferred this to using the shelter in the street. The neighbours at that time all helped each other to cope, and my neighbour did this each night even though his wife was disabled.
I managed with rationing quite well as the baby was entitled to extra orange juice and cod liver oil. I received good advice from the clinic in Blyth which I attended regularly.
One of the most frightening things was when I used the street shelter and we could hear a noise which sounded like a whistling bomb, being dropped near-by. Everyone was terrified until we realized that someone had forgotten to turn off their whistling kettle!

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