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At the beginning of World War Two I was still attending school. I heard the announcement of war being declared on the 3rd September 1939, but had little understanding of the meaning of ‘Being at War’. I remember my parents being in quite a state about it. The following day the air-raid siren went and we all congregated in the lobby of our house.
During the first week of the war evacuees from Gravesend, London, arrived. Our house was divided into two parts — my mother’s part and my grandma’s. Mother always did the feeding of our visitors during the war and grandma put them up since she had four bedrooms. The evacuees only lasted with us for two weeks because the young woman with her two children, who was staying with us, hated it so much. She spent a lot of her time with us sobbing.
After that we never had evacuees staying with us again. However, we did have a wide variety of people to stay during the war.
First of all we had soldiers. They were very nice but were soon sent to Italy where one of them was killed. The next arrival was a married couple. He worked at Hethel Air Base. We were convinced he was a Russian spy. Most evenings he and his wife would sit and talk in Russian. When they left, after 3-6 months, they took all my aunt’s bottom drawer. They were followed by an engineer and architect who were responsible for building part of Hethel Air Base. The plans for the base stood in the corner of our room for a long while. After this came a man who was in charge of a radio station located on Hewitts Lane. He and his wife lived with us until after the end of the war. He never said a word about his work with a team of privates at the radio station. However, we suspected he was de-coding messages.
Often during the period of the war there were air raids. On one occasion fifteen bombs dropped into the field at the bottom of our garden. The R.A.F and Police came to sort them out. We had one of the first garden air-raid shelters built in the town of Wymondham. My mum, dad, Philip (my brother) and I would use it and so would grandma and my aunt who lived next door. The sirens would sound when the German planes approached the coast and we would then go down in the shelter for hours on end. We could often hear guns and see searchlights. I can remember very clearly my mother and aunt carrying tea on a tray down the steps of the air raid shelter and the cups clattering loudly. I was interested in what was happening, but not frightened. I was very fortunate since I never got involved with the nasty side of the war.
ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICANS:
The cinema in Town Green, Wymondham, was turned into an Anglo American Army Canteen when the Americans arrived in the town. Downstairs was the canteen and upstairs a dance hall. A man by the name of Captain Norman Brown in the Church Army ran it. It was opened in early 1944 as a social club. The Americans attended it every night for snacks and socialising. There was no alcohol. Many local girls decided to join this American club. I was one of them. It was very convenient for me since I lived very close to the club. I remember being very busy most nights of the week. Monday was dancing, Tuesday I went to the Regal Cinema, Wednesday I danced, Thursday I watched films, Friday I washed my hair and Saturday I attended the ‘Big dances’ at the Secondary School on Norwich Road. At these we had a band from Morley Hospital called Gable Gators, which was great. It was all good fun.
As a girl I certainly did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation. I took lots of Americans home, Grandma loved it. We were given lots of food from the Air bases — doughnuts, biscuits and sweets. On Sunday afternoon a few of us would visit Morley Hospital, which was an all American Hospital. There we would chat and play games with the American patients.
The town was very involved with our American visitors. The pubs were very full every night and the town was very alive. They would supply the town with a Christmas tree and had lots of sweets to give to the local people. They attended fetes to help raise money for Spitfires. At fetes they would give a boxing display or else show us a game of baseball. The pilots had very little time off. They never spoke of their missions. The American flying crews had to do a tour of thirty missions (the number was then increased to thirty-five) often completing these in three months. A lot of them were still here at D-Day but returned to the USA shortly afterwards.
Two days before D-Day the Americans were confined to their bases and there were only a few Wymondham people in the town and I remember thinking ‘This is what it will be like at the end of the war’.
WORK DURING THE WAR:
After leaving school I worked in the Friarscroft Laundry, in the office. The officers would bring their own laundry, but everyone else’s laundry was sent en-masse. However, I was very keen to help in the family ironmongers shop, but I was not allowed to leave the laundry as my work there was a reserved occupation. I had to go before a tribunal at fifteen and explain that the girl in my father’s shop was going into the forces and my help was needed in the shop. Luckily I was released from the laundry and went into Stanley’s the Ironmongers, where I stayed for forty-four years. Trade was very good in the war when you could get goods. Among the things we sold were bikes/tyres, tubes and some crockery.
CELEBRATIONS AT THE END OF THE WAR:
A huge bonfire was lit on Fairland, far bigger than any I had seen before. A few fireworks were lit and I remember dancing on the top of the toilets in Market Place. All the pubs were open and were doing a good trade.
By August 1945 all the Americans had gone and the town and my life became very different. Life seemed very lonely after the war. My mother was worn out by all the visitors and said ‘No more!’. I was very pleased that the war was over. The British boys returned and married their sweethearts they had left behind. Our family was lucky, we did not lose anyone during the war. My two cousins, who had served, came home safely but very different people. Wymondham thus settled back to its old routine, very quiet, and rationing continued for several years.

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