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Jennie can remember bombs falling in the Gill Wood and Crookhall as they were trying to hit the steel works at Consett, but missed.

She can also remember crying so that she didn’t have to walk through the air raid shelters with her gas mask on in the practices. She was terrified, she was only 5 years old. Jennie’s little brother had a baby gas mask which he had to be put inside and he screamed every time he had to go inside it. Jennie’s Dad used to stand outside the air raid shelter and a bomb fell nearby and killed a cow. He very quickly decided to come inside the air raid shelter after that! Some people didn’t have air raid shelters so they had to go under the stairs.

Jennie’s sister Anne was in Tanfield hospital during the war and they had to put mattresses under the beds for the children to lie on — it was a bit of an adventure for a 9 year old. Anne can remember the bombs dropping in Blackhill Cemetery.

They had to have air raid practice at the schools where they had to put their masks on and they puffed gas in to test the gas masks. Anne can remember going in to the Anderson shelter with the attaché case with medical supplies, barley sugars and horlicks tablets.

They used to get dried eggs which were lovely scrambled. Their Mam used to make sponge cakes with liquid paraffin. She used to save all the cream off the milk as the milk man used to come with his can and ladle it into a basin and you used to skim the cream off the top and make butter or cream for Sunday tea. She used to make little tartlets with apple in and cream on the top.

Anne’s cousins from London came to stay, they had been evacuated from Harlston, North London. They were very frightened during the air raids as where they came from in the capital the bombings were worse and usually resulted in much more damage.

On the Market Square at Consett there was a big water tank for emergency supplies.

The YMCA had a hut below the Salvation Army (where the car park is now) and soldiers coming back from Dunkirk were billeted there. People round about took soldiers in so they could have a bath and a meal. They used to have sing songs around the piano to give the lads a touch of home.

The Bevin boys were lodged with miners’ families; these were boys who were not fit for active service. A lot of the boys came from Scotland. Young women who didn’t go into the forces were sent to the munitions factories or the land army. The Italian prisoners of war were lodged near the Hall at Berry Edge. Huts were built to accommodate them and they worked on the farms.
Disclaimer: Submitted by Carole Nesbit at Consett Library on behalf of Jennie and Anne.

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