大象传媒

My name was June Varley and i was born in Welling, in Kent in 1939.
My Father worked at Woolwich Arsenal, which was a prime target for the German bombers.
Apparently (i was a baby at the time), a rocket went through our family home, and subsequently we moved back to our Lancashire home, as we had relatives in the area.
We rented a house, it was number 10, Coniston Road, Little Harwood, Blackburn...it was right across from the Lion Brewery.
Apparently we arrived with five suitcases and nothing else!
I slept in a cupboard drawer as there was no furniture in the house.
Workers at the Lion Brewery heard about our plight, and had a collection for us. My Mum recalls that someone came to the door with a collection from the workers of four pounds sixteen shillings, which was a hefty sum then!
Other donations followed, including pieces of furniture, and bits of carpet.
We settled there and always had very fond memories of ittle Harwood, and the generous people who lived there.

About fifty five years later we made a trip to Welling in Kent. As we got off the train, one other lady also got off with us. We asked her if Axminister Crescent was still there, and remarkably she said she lived there!!! She is called Grace Adams.
We explained that we had returned after all those years to try to find our roots, and we shared a taxi with her back to the area.
We got out of the taxi and walked the last few yards, took in the area, and the good life our Father had planned for us. We went to number 42 where we were born, which was still standing, but no-one in the house, so we called next door to expain why we were taking photographs; she showed us the back of our old house, where the rocket had gone through the bathroom area, which had been re-built. The she said to us "An elderly lady lives lower down, perhaps she can remember what happened".
We went to visit this lady who lived at number 46. We explained to her where i was born. She asked my Surname, and asked if i was the baby was born there - who was a breach baby, all those years ago, and she said that she had held me in her arms when i was two hours old.
We stayed with her for a few hours, trying to catch up on the missed decades and travelled back to our beloved Lancashire with a very warm heart.

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