大象传媒

Jessie was evacuated to Fleetwood when she was 11 years old. The war didn't really mean that much to her at that age, and she looked forward to living at the seaside, as she had been on trips there before. Her father was in the navy, and her mother visited once a month. Jessie was very happy there, but not all the children settled and some had to be taken home. There was lots of aircraft activity, and Jessie wonders if the seaside was such a logical place to be evacuated to. She returned home to Manchester after six months by the sea. The bombing began to get very heavy. Her mother had to go to work, so Jessie was often on her own apart from the cat, but she never really felt that her house was going to be hit. A doodlebug did explode quite nearby; soon after that came the Manchester Blitz. There was no transport during air raids. Jessie was in Birmingham with her aunt during the Manchester Blitz; when she came back home, there were blitzes in Birmingham and Coventry, and her mother said that Jessie was good at missing the worst of the bombing.

Interviewed by Ben McCrory at Victoria Baths in Manchester, Sunday 5 June 2005.

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