大象传媒

Wartime memories of life in Keighley

When war broke in the September of 1939 I was a school child, I was eleven years old when it started.

Working in Wartime
Once I did start work at fourteen, because you left school at fourteen then, I just went straight into a textile mill that was very near where I lived and that was all about spinning khaki. That鈥檚 all we spun all the time was khaki. I worked there and you couldn鈥檛 leave for quite a few years. I was eighteen years old before I could leave, because with it being in the war you couldn鈥檛 leave that job, you see. I used to give my notice in every Friday and he used to say that you are only doing this because you know you can鈥檛 leave. But I couldn鈥檛, not until I was eighteen years old.

Everyday Life
I was really frightened especially during the first year, as you never knew what was going to happen. The first night when the air raid sirens went, I went into hysterics, I was so frightened. You just imagined you were in the war and what could happen, but after a while you more or less took it for granted and carried on normally. You could hear the runs, when the air raid sirens had gone, you could hear the runs in the background. I remember hearing bombs in Bradford, we could hear the noises although they did have runs top of the moors. That was a near as it got to us, was Bradford. Keighley wasn鈥檛 bombed during the war.

We used to listen to Haw Haw on the news and it was frightening, he knew Keighley, he knew everywhere. Lord Haw Haw used to spread rumors and tried to do a lot of damage to moral and that.

Evacuees
There were some evacuees who came up from London and they went to Ingrow School. Two sisters there were who lived in London got evacuated up here. Well we used to go and play in Lumb Park, near us, and we were in one night when the sirens went. Well we just automatically started walking home when the sirens went but you know they set off and they dashed and they were screaming, and we were saying, 鈥渨hat are you doing鈥�. They were saying, 鈥測ou can鈥檛 walk like this鈥�. If they鈥檇 have been in London they would already have been machine gunning them they said, and they were so terrified because of the difference up here in Keighley, compared to what it was in London.

Restrictions on Life
I think the worst restriction was the blackouts, because the times I went out with my friend and we got lost. I mean it was a bit funny at the time but it鈥檚 a good job it was safer in the streets in them days than what it is now because I鈥檇 hate to think of getting lost out in the streets now. It was bad, it was dangerous because even the buses and that didn鈥檛 have proper lights on, they had just enough for the drivers to see the road. It was pretty bad actually. I was glad when it finished. I know I was at a dance, I was seventeen then at a dance in Keighley and they announced it on the stage, the war is over and everybody was crying and cheering, such a happy thing when it happened, everybody was so relieved.

Schooldays
The war didn鈥檛 make any difference to school life, we just went to school normally. But I can鈥檛 remember whether there were any air raid sirens while we were at school. I don鈥檛 know what we did at school, because I know there were air raid shelters under the school but we never went in them. There were no practices. I never knew what the air raid shelters looked like although they are still there actually, in the schoolyard. Under the shed there are still doors in the walls that they told you were the air raid shelters, but we never went in them.

Scarlet Fever
I was telling someone only last week that there was an isolation hospital in Keighley then, it isn鈥檛 here now. It was for Diptheria and Scarlet Fever. Well it was scarlet fever that I caught and you went in for a month and your parents never saw you all that month. But they used to bring things up for you and they would hand it to the nurses for you. The sirens went quite a few times while I was in there in that month, and do you know what we had to do then when the sirens went? We had to bring all the po鈥檚 round from the hospital, and they were all steel, and we had all to sit up in bed with a po on our heads instead of having a helmet on. We used to all just sit in bed until the air raid sirens went all clear again. I mean I can still laugh about that.

Family Members
My dad was an air raid warden. My sister, she had to go and work on the buses instead of doing the land army or anything like that. She picked to go on the buses as a conductress, and I was spinning away in my khaki, and that was it really.

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