´óÏó´«Ã½

I was born on 1st October 1939 at 33 Lower Ford St, Coventry. My first school was Wheatley St, where the bus station is now. We were bombed out of my home with an incendiary bomb which went right through the house. So we moved to 15 Lower Ford St.

The only person left in the street who’s still alive is Dulcie Gray who used to own the gown shop. She had two names. Her husband was in the Royal Navy and his name was Aves- but she’d use her maiden name for the shop. She catered for all the celebrities who were visiting the Hippodrome. She was a friend to all the stars, but her big friend was Billy Cotton for whom I used to be an errand boy. One time I was sent to collect a fur coat to be mended and I had to come back with it on the bus. Well, I hopped off the bus- but completely forgot the box with the coat in it! I was too scared to go back to the shop without it, so I ran round the corner to a point where all the buses would have to pass, and jumped on every bus I found and looked under the seats. Eventually I found the box. When I got back Dulcie Grey said ‘where’ve you been?!’ I ummed and ahhed and told her it’d taken me a while to find the place, but she never knew the real story!

After we got bombed out I changed schools and went to South St (now called Southfields). If you were at school and you heard the sirens go you used to have to return home and go down the shelters. All the neighbours would come and we’d all bring bits of food to share. But we had one neighbour, a shopkeeper, who’d never bring anything down to the shelter. We’d ask ‘haven’t you got anything?’ and she’d say ‘no no, I’ve got nothing at all’. So we used to get the key to her shop and just go and help ourselves!

I remember the rationing books- you’d get your sweets and the shopkeeper’d give you a few extra if you did her errands. When you got your sugar you’d each have a little jar with your name on it- and when you couldn’t get sugar she’d trade it for sweets. When you were going to school the German prisoners would be up by Gosford Green laying the kerbstones and doing the roads. They wore a big diamond on their back and you weren’t supposed to talk to them. But we did. And we used to sit on the wall and ask the American soldiers for sweets: ‘have you got any gum, chum?!’

We used to go to school with the Batemans. We were big friends with that family and the husband used to use the club at the bottom of the street. He had a sack under the cellar with incendiary bombs and hand grenades, and being kids we used to throw them to each other for fun- until he caught us once. After that somebody came along and took them off him. I’m just glad we never pulled the pin out! We used to go onto the bomb sites too. People had been blown to smithereens and we would collect their coins. Being children we didn’t know what it was all about. I even got caught out in the garden one night watching two Spitfires fighting, till my Dad caught me and dragged me in. He took me up to the cathedral when it was bombed and still smouldering. They were aiming for the ammo place in Red Lane and hit the cathedral instead. Funnily enough the cathedral was flattened and the ammo place is still standing- the Ordinance. I remember them doing collections towards the bricks for the new cathedral- only that was after the war.

Some interesting things went on in Lower Ford St. The next door neighbours, who ironically enough were in the Salvation Army, had a son in the army. He used to move the army rations about. So one day he threw his gun away and brought the truck down the street instead and we all enjoyed ourselves! They were just tucking into a chicken when the police arrived, and they ended up having bread and jam for Sunday lunch! Then there was the boy who used to get on everyone’s nerves with his pranks. He had to wear his father’s trousers to school and he used to scrump apples from people’s attics. One night we were making bonfires, and he’d thrown someone’s garden gate onto his. The lady came along and said ‘that’s a fine blaze you’ve got, sonny’, and he replied ‘well it ought to be, that’s your gate on it!’ He was a cheeky one.

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