大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Cleveland and submitted to the website, with the permission and on behalf of Margaret Denham.

I was five years old when war broke out in 1939. I was attending the Board School in Whitby鈥檚 Church Street. My earliest memory is of 鈥渁ir raid practice鈥�. The older boys and girls were each allocated one of the smaller children to take care of when such a raid was on. When the warning bell sounded, the older ones had to find their smaller charge and then we all lined up against the wall of the central square winding stairway, with the tall child against the wall and the little one held close in front. I was looked after by a girl called Joan Miller.

Very soon it was decided that the Board School was not safe for children as it was old and both very tall and narrow. So we were all 鈥榚vacuated鈥� to Whitehall 鈥� a large house up Spital Bridge on Helredale Road. This house had been previously owned by the Turnbull Shipping Family, hence the name of Whitehall Shipyard.

I have many recollections of Whitehall. The first was that it was a centre for storing large grey blankets in case they were needed. I think Whitehall must have suffered with dampness (I don鈥檛 recall much heating!). Each Friday after school 鈥� or perhaps every two weeks 鈥� we used to go in pairs to the blanket store, then we each took a blanket to people who lived in the nearby houses; they in turn returned the blankets which had been 鈥渁ired鈥� and we took them back to school.

There was no room for 鈥榮chool dinners鈥� at Whitehall, so each day we went further up Helredale Road to 鈥楾he Mount鈥�, which had also previously been a home to the Turnbull family of Whitby. On a rota some of the older children went up a little early and helped the dinner ladies set the tables. I remember it being my turn on D-Day, 6th June 1944. When we arrived Mrs Carter, the mother of my friend Betty, greeted us very solemnly with 鈥淭he allies have landed in Normandy鈥�. I鈥檓 note sure we knew at the time what it meant, but it was obviously very significant by Mrs Carter鈥檚 tone 鈥� just like the news readers on the radio!

My Father was the Manager of the Sandgate branch of Whitby Co-op. With rationing, each ration book contained pages of 鈥減oints鈥� for different foodstuffs. When a purchase was made the shopkeeper cut the correct amount of points out of the book. I think they were in strips of 4鈥檚 or 5鈥檚, so the appropriate number of points could be removed. My Dad, Mum and I used to sort all these different sized strips of different types and then count them (probably into hundreds) and tie each bundle up with a piece of my Mum鈥檚 sewing cotton. Either she had a lot of cottons or maybe neighbours gave us some of theirs 鈥� everyone had a sewing box full of different coloured cottons and darning wools.

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