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In wartime Arle, Mr. Roberts was an ARP Warden as was Mr. Raechel and Mr. Peart. At that time Mrs. Roberts and her family lived at No. 6 Arle Cottages and she remembers the bombs falling. She had just come back from town with her daughter, aged five, and saw the plane's bomb door open and the bombs drop. They landed on the railway in Arle Road.
Her first husband, Charles, worked for ‘Arle Farm’ for 28 years and his father and grandfather also worked there. Their son went to Elmfield School and, there being no shops in Arle, she had to go to town for her rations.
Mr. Bromage, who was a neighbour, was in a reserved occupation. The farm like so many others was concentrating on pig breeding during the war, and Charlie used to go to the American Camp to get scraps for pig feed. The Americans lived much more luxuriously than the British soldiers or the ordinary people, and what Charlie brought back did not always end up in the pig swill. Even the hogs though lived 'high off the hog'.
About this time 30 people (she believes evacuees) lived in Arle Farm House, Mr. Wood having moved to the Moat House at Uckington. A couple with a baby lived in the farmhouse and Mrs. Roberts often chatted with them. Some of the people worked at Brockworth.
Arle Farm Cottages did not have electricity at the time so they had to rely on oil lamps and candles. Prisoners of war worked on the farm and also at Hope Farm and in Swindon Village, as well as Land Army girls.
But, as Mrs. Roberts says, though they had a hard life and few luxuries, one could feel safe in their little homes, leave doors unlocked and leave bicycles standing about. Sadly this is not the case these days, so along with Old Arle, we seem to have lost the spirit of caring for each other and respect for other peoples' property

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