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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Radio Northampton Action Desk on behalf of Barbara Brown and has been added to the site with her permission. Barbara Brown fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Nice One

The American Airborne Troops, well one part of them, was stationed in the Church Hall, the Library and Swimming Pool in Oadby. They regularly gave the local children chewing gum; unheard of before the war.

We had a very popular Fish and Chip shop in the village, run by Mabel and Charley, no one ever referred to them by their surname. They sold wet fish during the day, but fried fish and chips in the evening. Chips at 3d and fish 6d. The Americans loved their fish and chips and regularly used to queue with the locals and beg for the scratchings, as did the rest of us (scratchings being the bits of batter that used to fall off the fish).

One day, Charley painted on the shop window with whitewash: ‘No Frying Tonight, No Fat’, well the Americans were not going to be deprived of their fish and chips, so they supplied Mabel and Charley with a barrel of cooking oil so we could all have our delicacy. I was very young, but I was in the queue that evening and I remember Mabel confiding to an adult before me; ‘we have never cooked with oil before’!!!

Prisoner of War Camps and Ice Lollies

One mile away at Shady Lane, Evington, there was a prisoner of war camp which had German and Italian troops there. The Italians did not want to return to the war and were seen regularly walking through the villages, in their grey overalls with a yellow patch on the shoulder. They also worked on the local farms. The German prisoners were not allowed the same freedom, but they used to carve wooden toys and would hand them through the wire to the local children. My elder sister, Kathleen Elliott remembers that very well.

We used to walk to Evington and pass the camp on our way to the village, as the shop on the green was the only place you could buy an ice lolly; orange cordial and water put into cracked teacups with a stick. It was the only shop who had a freezer!!! We would buy our lolly, sit on the swings on the green to eat and then walk home. It seemed a very long way to small legs.

We were surrounded by troops of one kind or another. Stoughton had an airfield with the RAF, that was just half a mile from Evington and the English Army was stationed in the Leicester Racecourse Stables, which is situated within the boundaries of Oadby.

Elliott Shop Tales

My sisters, Joan, Kathleen and I lived in a grocery shop in Oadby village run by my mother, Bessie Elliott. My father, Irving Elliott was unfit for war service so worked in a munitions factory during the day, but drove ambulances for the ARP at nights! General Ridgeway, the American commander called in the shop to ask my mother if the American troops were behaving themselves, which she was very pleased to say, they were. General Ridgeway was stationed in Sir Johnathon North’s house opposite the Leicester Racecourse.

A regular Sunday evening chore I remember, was the family sitting around the table counting up and wrapping around with black cotton (it had to be black, I don’t know why), the coupons from the Ration Books. The sweet coupons were tiny triangles but they had to be returned to the Wholesalers or you did not get the next months’ allowance of food or sweets. It was a very fiddly job, but little fingers were better than large, so my two sisters and I did the sweet coupons and my parents did the general rations.

Mouldy Bacon

I do remember one particularly unpleasant incident. Bacon used to arrive in one whole side, which my mother used to have to bone out before cutting the allowance, on the bacon slicer, for registered customers. This particular side of bacon was mouldy (green) and was alive with maggots crawling all around the bones. Mum decided it was too awful to try and serve to her customers, so my sister Kathleen (who was 10) and I (at 6) should take this particular side of bacon back to the wholesalers.

We caught the Midland Red Bus near the Oadby Church and between us carted this revolting side of bacon to Leicester, got off the bus and struggled between us for nearly a quarter of a mile to the wholesalers, only to be told there was no replacement.

We had to cart the bacon back to the bus, and do the return trip, where upon my mother had to cut off the green bits, wash with vinegar and water to get rid of the maggots and try to make it look fit, and finally serve to her customers. She must have made a good job as I don’t remember any complaints. But then it was War Time; people didn’t go about complaining!!!

There was no bathroom or inside toilet at the shop, there were six toilets at the top of the yard, shared by ten houses, with a big brick copper that the water had to be boiled in for baths in front of the fire.

Sing Songs

My mother was very popular with the young women who lived in the houses attached to the back yard, and often we would wake to the sound of my mother playing the piano with a room full of RAF and Soldiers and these young women having a sing song. We would creep downstairs, be given cups of cocoa, sit on the knees of the forces and allowed to join in for a song before being sent back to bed. It seemed that way to us girls, but as I remember the room was very small, so there couldn’t’ have been more than two women and the same amount of men plus my mother.

We left the shop in 1952 and the whole block of houses and shop was demolished in the late 1950s.

The Tank

One memory, which happened to my mother, Bessie Elliott in her shop was recounted to the family:

On February 11th, not sure which year (my sister Kathleen was at home in bed poorly, it was her birthday, which is why the date is correct), there was a convoy of Army Vehicles driving through the village, which was meant to turn left out of London Road, Oadby into New Street. This was the route to Stoughton Aerodrome, where the convoy was meant to go.

There was one rather enthusiastic driver (definitely novice) of, my mother says it was a tank. It was reported in the book ‘Oadby 1880 to 1980’ as an armored car, whichever, it was a tracked vehicle rather than wheels and very large. These vehicles had levers and brakes only, no steering wheels. This enthusiastic driver miscalculated his left turn and drove the tank straight through the shop windows and door.

This wasn’t reported in the Oadby book.

In those days there was a wooden chair (like a dining chair) in front of the counter where customers sat while being served.

My mother was standing on a sugar sack to reach an item from the top shelf. Sugar in those days came in 1cwt sacks which the shop keeper had to weigh into half pound or one pound dark blue heavy paper bags (the weights and measure inspectors called regularly to check the scales). She was knocked off the sack and over the counter. There was a lady sitting on the chair waiting for her goods my mother was reaching to get. Luckily the tank came to a halt before touching this lady - just!!!

Needless to say, the whole shop front was smashed in. I don’t remember how long it took to be repaired. I do know that the lady customer never recovered from the shock and she died within just a few months. I do know her name, but her family might not wish it mentioned.

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