大象传媒

Even in a comparatively quiet town like Trowbridge there always seemed to be something going on. As small children in the early days of the war we did not always realize the peril our nation was in but life was never dull. Always something to watch - and today they were taking our railings away! After over sixty years many have never been replaced and even now if you look at the front garden walls of older properties you can still see rusty pieces of iron protruding from the stone. There are some of us who can still remember the day they disapppeared. We watched in awe as a group of workman armed with acetylene cutters slowly moved along our street removing nearly all the iron gates and railings.Only those in dangerous places remained. This was part of the war effort to provide metal for building tanks and guns. Sadly even after many months large stacks of these lovely ornamental railings remained in piles at local scrapyards and a lot of them may not have ever been used for the purpose intended.
We live in the age of recycling - but again this was part of everday life in those days. Not for environmental purposes but we were told Waste not Want not. Empty jam jars were collected and re-used, but a more lasting memory is of our parents giving up all unwanted pots and pans. The aluminium was to be used for making aircraft - and unlike the railings these were certainly not wasted. One of the old wartime photographs shows one of our local coal merchants with his lorry in the centre of Trowbridge loaded high with pots and pans - and in all probabability they later arrived back as raw material for the Spitfires which were being manufactured in factories in various parts of the town.

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