大象传媒

I was a girl of 17 years when war was declared. I was living in Hartley Plymouth, with a dentist and his family helping with household chores and looking after the children. During the blitz on Plymouth in 1941 I and the children slept every night for a couple of months (March and April) in our Air raid shelter in the garden. I felt very safe in there because I saw it being built. The walls were really well inforced so were very strong and the roof was built with tramlines. We even had a shovel and fork incase we needed to dig ourselves out. I remember after the March Blitz coming up out of the shelter in the morning to look over Plymouth towards the centre to see the flames rising. During this time my mother was caretaker of our village school at Sparkwell, and the school was used as a rest centre for the people of Plymouth. They came out every night in Lorries, or any transport they could get hold of, some just walking to get away from the bombers. She would be up every morning at five and light the coke stoves to get the water hot for the tea and coffee, and she would butter the bread ready to put the jam on so that the people could go back to Plymouth to their homes ( if they were left standing). She was also a member of the WVS (Woman鈥檚 Voluntary Service), this went on for nights, infact I think she should have had a medal for all the work she did.

After the blitz I came home to Sparkwell, and my sailor sweetheart was at sea, his ship H.M.S Zulu got caught up in the sinking of the German battleship Bismark, having been damaged in action, he put into Falmouth for repairs. We hurriedly arranged our marriage and on June the 28th we were married in Sparkwell church. I was able to find a little shop in Market Avenue that was amongst all the ruins of Plymouth, to get a white wedding dress. Everything in the shop was covered in dust due to the recent bombing. The reception was held in the school. Our friends rallied round with coupons from their ration books. We had a chocolate wedding cake from Goodbodys of Mutley Plain. My father and his brothers were serving with the Home Guard, they were due to go on duty that night, but owing to having too much cider at the wedding, were unable to carry out their duty, so ended up sleeping under a hedge. A good thing 鈥淛erry鈥� decided not to come that night.

I left for my honeymoon in a taxi to Saltash Ferry, and then caught a bus to Downderry. It was beautiful weather and a relaxing welcome few days for my new husband away from the war at sea.

After I was married and did not have any children at that time, I still had to do some
kind of war work. I was sent to the Wolfram factory on the edge of Dartmoor where they extracted Wolfram - which was a substance that was extracted from granite to harden steel. We had to ware overalls and boots as it was a very wet job as most of the work entailed washing and grading the Wolfram. I earned 拢2-15d a week.

I left the Wolfram and was sent to Coypool where the Americans were based. There was also an Italian Prison of war camp there and we had to work with the prisoners sorting out uniforms, pressing them and putting them into bundles ready to be used again. When that all finished, they tried to get us country girls to work in the Dockyard in Plymouth but as there was no transport at the time we were sent to a bone yard where they made fertilizers. It was terribly smelly but luckily I didn鈥檛 have to stay long as my husbands ship came into Chatham. He sent me a letter asking me to go up and visit him and as they were not allowed to stop me I went and had a nice time in Chatham. Soon after I am pleased to say the war ended and I was able to come back to Sparkwell to live and have lived ever since.

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