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This story is submitted by a volunteer on behalf of Radio Bristol Action Desk at City of Bristol College.

When VE day came we went up on the Downs, and Mickleburgh's threw out two old pianos. Everybody was playing on them. When everybody had had a good time, they set them on fire and had a good bonfire!

Phyllis worked at Southmead Hospital during the war as a conscript. Phyllis remembers the bombs falling all around and Dr Phillips had a bomb outside his house.

Phyllis remembers wonderful times like the dances the matron used to put on. she used to invite the soldiers from the barracks and the RAF camp. Although the war was on, they had some really good times. It wasn't all gloom and doom.

Phyllis was only going to stay there while the war was on but stayed on for 15 more years and met her husband there, who was in the tank corps for 6 years as a Desert Rat. When he came out of the army, he and Phyllis got married.

It was hard work. They didn't know what it was to have a day off. They only ever had a half day.

The hospitals were wonderfully clean and you wouldn't see the nurses without their uniforms. The wards would really shine. Active TBs would come down from London and the hospitals were packed.

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