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Memories of a young boy living in Bolnhurst, Bedfordshire Part One

Part one of an oral history interview with Mr. Alec Foster conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

鈥淢y name is Alec Foster and I was born at Bolnhurst, Bedfordshire in March 1937. I was an inquisitive child, I mean my memory is very scatty and it鈥檚 just a very shallow memory I have of one or two occasions when I saw the Home Guard. It鈥檚 not as if I regularly attended any of the meetings and it well may be that they didn鈥檛 have too many meetings in my village at Bolnhurst because it was attached to Keysoe - they would have met there more often.

All I remember, I wouldn鈥檛 call it a parade ground it was just a field that I remember them (the Home Guard) meeting in which was only about two or three hundred yards away from where I lived. I can vaguely remember I saw some of the members of the Home Guard cycling up to this field where they met. I just got my tricycle out and followed them with my little toy rifle. I couldn鈥檛 remember the leaders, whether they were sergeants or corporals, but at my young age I wouldn鈥檛 really have known much difference about that. But there would have been as far as I can recall about a dozen to 15 men perhaps. Some of whom I knew by sight. We used to have military manoeuvres in the local fields around and sometimes there were tents up and activities and as a young child I always seemed to be involved with whatever was going on, maybe I was too nosy.

I don鈥檛 ever remember anyone telling me off but I used to stand along side the Platoon who were being drilled, as far as I can recall. The occasions I can remember, they had simple drilling events. Just a little bit of marching, about turning and rifle drill. Maybe not all with rifles, I can鈥檛 remember that, they may have been real Dad鈥檚 Army stuff. I joined in because I had a toy rifle and I had a tricycle so I felt I was able to join in with them.

I went to the local school in Bolnhurst. That was of fairly close proximity to where the Home Guard used to have their meetings, they met in other places as well, but this was possibly a Sunday morning event, they would do this. The school was about 500 yards away from where I lived.

We lived fairly near to two aerodromes, one at Thurleigh and one at Little Staughton, there was continual activity as far as air activity was concerned, I do remember that. And I remember we used to get up very early in the mornings and from what I can recall on one or two occasions we could see German bombers going back home to Germany having deposited their loads on Coventry and so on then coming back. We were very near to the flight path or at least we were within yards of where the planes would have gone. There were occasions when I remember they were fairly low flying and some of them didn鈥檛 always get to Coventry, they turned around before they got there and deposited their loads and fled. I remember that and that being spoken of at the time. I can recall a couple of occasions at least, I can recall quite vividly, as children we were standing out playing on the road side, there were no cars to bother about. The main traffic was air activity. The crews in the planes would wave to us as children which was quite a spectacular thing. These were the German bombers going back home. I remember that but that again was a fleeting memory. But that was life, life one had to put up with aeroplanes droning in the skies.

We used to cycle, towards the end of the war I was still quite young of course, only eight I suppose when the war finished, so I only had a growing interest in the aircraft I suppose at that time. But towards the end of the war when the American Air Force base was established at Thurleigh they were very good custodians at the time as perhaps you are well aware. They often used to collect us from the school and take us to the aerodrome and give us film shows in their cinema, give tea parties, these would maybe have been Saturday afternoons I suppose, I can鈥檛 recall exactly when it would have been. Certainly Christmas parties, one or two we went to, maybe a couple because they would not have been there all that long. We almost missed the war when it finished because the goods from the American Servicemen dried up. And oh, yes, if we went to the parties at the Thurleigh Base we had ice cream and all sorts of jolly things, which now we take for granted but in those days were unknown. We enjoyed the fruits of the war really in that respect. We got to know some of the American Servicemen who I believe have since been over with the Commemorative Celebrations they hold occasionally. There was one particular who stands out, his name was Captain Knight, who used to cycle a lot and he used to cycle from Thurleigh to St. Neot鈥檚 I believe and he used to pass our house and he used to stop and give us sweets on the way. He was a very friendly chap and I do believe he has been over in more recent years. That鈥檚 just a named memory I have.

And then of course we used to get visits. Some of the folk in the village used to entertain some of the Americans, used to give them hospitality. And I believe a house fairly near to where I lived there was a former Wing Commander who was retired and he used to host little 鈥榞et togethers鈥� for the American Servicemen. So they could come down in their jeeps and on their bikes and then give us rides on their vehicles. I used to sit in a jeep often and be driven about for short distances which was quite exciting, exhilarating stuff. Which I鈥檇 appreciate now much more!

My mother was very stoical. I suppose a lot of women had to be, their husbands were away and they were left to be the home managers very much. My grandmother was alive during the war, my grandfather had died previous to the outbreak of war, early 1939 so he wasn鈥檛 involved but my grandmother lived with us and so my mother had her to look after in her aging years. There was also myself and two older sisters. A household of women and I noticed it. They鈥檇 say I was spoilt but I thought I suffered!

The village school was a very small school, we only had about, at any stage no more than 20 pupils and when I left in 1948 there would possibly have been only about eight. The school closed down when I left so the leftovers were shipped off the Keysoe or to Bedford as in my case. Coming in to Bedford to school from 1948 on. We had one teacher, Mrs. Harper a splendid lady who had taught my mother in the school as a young teacher and then she married one of her pupils and became Mrs. Harper. She lived in the village and was at the school until the close.

I do remember we did have a few buses during the war, not many, but a few buses to give us an out of home journey if we wanted. Or there was I believe on a Wednesday, market day and Saturdays, there was a village bus from Keysoe, Woolston鈥檚 Coaches that used to run the journey morning and afternoon. Failing that there was a taxi service with a gentleman from Keysoe who I believe was a bit of an all sorts, he was a cobbler, ran the taxi service as well with a big American Studebaker from what I remember. We used to huddle together in this thing and used to go into Bedford and on one occasion we had to get out because of the steep hills coming back out of Bedford, Cleat Hill and Sunderland鈥檚 Hill. We often had to get out and walked so that the car could get up the hill and then we could clamber back in again. It was definitely pioneer stuff athough it was quite an elderly car. I now know a little bit about old cars but I didn鈥檛 know much at the time, but I should think from what I can recall it would be a 1928 or 1929 Studebaker, Mr. Rastrick was the taxi driver.

Yes, food was rationed although we never seemed to be without. I remember occasionally conversations being held about it, perhaps about shortage of certain things. But we benefitted from the Americans in the sense that we got ample supplies of oranges, apples and bananas when no one else was getting anything like that, we were having these. And often I recall, it seemed to be quite frequently but it couldn鈥檛 have been many times, but certainly on more than one occasion the American delivery trucks with their supplies on board would come from the depot鈥檚 wherever they fetched them from, would have accidents rolling the trucks. I lived on a corner and the corner was quite sharp and I don鈥檛 think the American drivers driving the trucks were fully appreciative of it. And there were a number of occasions when they rolled their trucks over and landed up in the ditch, fortunately the other side of the road opposite to our house, but that often seemed to happen. When they did apples and bananas all over the place and we were just allowed to help ourselves by helping to clear up the mess. No one ever seemed to be hurt, I鈥檓 not sure again whether they were going to Thurleigh or whether they were going on to Chelveston near Kimbolton and other aerodromes out that way, Podington and so on. I鈥檓 not sure where they would be destined for but it certainly happened on a number of occasions which was one of the highlights. We used to stand back and see all these lorries coming and we almost used to wait for them to roll over. I think there was a bad camber on the road and they misjudged and we benefitted from it.鈥�

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