大象传媒

I was born in 1938 at my Grandparents home which was Mill Farm Swalwell,Gateshead. My Grandparents were George and Hannah Oxley, they had a haulage business but also kept livestock at Mill Farm. I was born in 1938 and was only a year old when war broke out .My Grandparents owned a Ford V8 motor car, so the day war was declared I was told they all went to Blanchland Abbey.
My earliest memories of WW2, are of many young men all in service uniforms coming to say goodbye to my grandparents. All these had played cricket with my two cousins George and Tom. They too were called up. George was training with Whickham Council as a sanitary inspector. He went into the Royal Army Medical Corps, he spent most of the War in North Africa and Greece. He was also at Mount Cassino in Italy. I believe his job was to test the wells in case the German put poison down them, this was at the time the British were advancing and the Germans were retreating.
My other cousin Tom was in the Royal Air Force. I remember one day my Uncle George was telling me he was going to get a Shire Horse out for me to have a ride on. I was thrilled because I loved the horses however as I rode around I thought how strange the whole family are watching me. Sadly this had been a ploy as my Grandmother was going with my Auntie Betty to Devon as my cousin Tom was being posted. I cried for days after my Grandma had gone and she confessed it had upset her too, but my Auntie Betty had said it was too dangerous a journey to take me along. I would have nothing to do with my parents or anyone else in my extended family as I felt they had all been involved in the plot. The only person I would have anything to do with was my Grandfather as I heard him say "You all knew how upset she would be they should have taken her with them." For the next week I slept next to my lovely Grandfather until my Grandmother came home.
Before I started school everyone had a gas mask, mine looked like Mickey Mouse but because of the big tongue I was scared of it so every time I tried it on I screamed so my Mother had to send for someone who came out to our home with an ordinary one and took the Mickey Mouse mask back. We always had to carry our masks to school and when the register was called you stood up and showed your gas mask should you forget it you were immediately sent home to collect it.
The thing I hated and made me scared were the search lights and also I hated the balloons, they were on the cricket field at Swalwell. My cousin Laura told me men were in the balloons and you could be taken away. Oneday I was playing in the field seeing the balloon which had broken free I started running I was nearly up to Beech Grove before they found me.
A cousin of Grandma's used to come to the farm every afternoon and have a cup of tea. One day I was playing in the field with a friend and on seeing her I ran to the fence and shouted "Auntie Bella.. Harry Hutchinson has oranges and Jack Brown has sausages. Both shops were in Swalwell. Auntie Bella turned round to go and buy these goods alas it was something I had just made up. The next day she told the family what I had said and they all had a good laugh and my mother must have written to my cousin George telling him what I had done because on my next birthday he sent me a drawing of Jack Brown's shop with sausages hanging up outside.
Although war was going on my sister Audrey and I still enjoyed a lovely time at Christmas. I remember getting a little tin pram, my sister had lovely big pram because she had been born in 1936. We each had a dolls house, someone who worked on the railway with my Dad made them. I was told later in life they had cost 25 shillings each. One year Uncle George made me a black doll. It was made out of a great uncles suit but the work that went into it had to be seen, she had black wool curly hair, red felt lips, blue button eyes and lovely satin shoes with little cardboard soles. How I treasured her but I gave her away some years later when a child visiting took a fancy to her. I always regretted it because I would to have show her to my own grandchildren. My Uncle George also made us desks and chairs.
I was in town with my Mother and sister and saw a man beside Central Station playing the bagpipes but I took a fancy to the man's kilt. I asked my mother could I have one from Santa Claus she replied "I do not think Santa will have enough clothing coupons. However my cousin Tom who was in Canada under going training with the Royal Air Force sent enough tartan material that made my sister and I a kilt and my cousin Laura a dress. Tom always saved up sweets for us they were like the old Spangles. I think they were issued to them for when they were landing the planes. Tom was a navigator and I think his pilot gave him some of his sweet rations too because they would arrive in like three flour bags. You see he always sent three packages one for my cousin Laura and one each for my sister and I. I know we had a little photograph taken in the orchard at Mill Farm the next year and on the back is 1943 so we must have got our kilts at Christmas 1942.
After some time German prisoners of war came to work on the farms. I remember two very well one was called Sep and the other Helmet. A terrible thing happened to Sep, he was working at North Farm a family by the name of Clark lived there and they had given some people permission to shoot rabbits. Well the farmer's son Bob went into the field not knowing the people shooting rabbits had moved into this field. Sadly Sep the German had his eye put out. Sep, I remember made some kind of instrument out of wood and string. He used to play nice tunes on it. Helmet of course was the one I knew best. They all wore clothes with patches on that was to state they were prisoners of war.
Well one day when I was at school we were told to write something about someone we liked, then we were allowed to draw the person and paint the picture. I decided to write and draw a picture of Helmet. The teacher asked us to stand at the front of class and talk about our picture. Before I said whom mine was a little boy sitting in the front row jumped out of his seat and gave me a great big kick shouting "Miss Sheila likes a Garman!" Well just then the bell went and we all went out to play I was playing with Mary Osbourne who lived at East Farm and this little boy got a lot of his friends to surround us, they all started hitting us and shouting "Garman Lovers!" The teacher on duty saw what was happening and came and took us back into school. We thought we were really in trouble and we were both crying, but the teacher took us to the headmistress Miss Bergstrand who gave us a biscuit. The head mistress took us back into class and asked the boy to come out. She asked him "Do you like me?" He said he did and then she told him how sad she was that we were at war with Germany, because that was where she has been born. She asked him to shake hands with us and say sorry. She told the class how pleased she was we were being kind to these men away from their families. I confess when Helmet was on the horse and cart bringing in a load of turnips we would shout "Helmet there will always be an England and England shall be free!" He would throw turnips at us pretending he was mad. One thing Helmet could not stand was lipstick. If we were playing dressing up and put lipstick on he would wipe it off us saying it is made of rat's blood. Helmet stayed in the Clark's house how this happened I do not know. He was from the camp on Lord Gort's estate at Hamsterley Mill. Wd had an air raid shelter but Clark's did not. They all went into a big cupboard under the stairs with the exception of Mrs Clark and Helmet who always came into our shelter. I have known Helmet to carry me into the air raid shelter when Dad was at work sometimes. There was a time when air raids were taking place night after night they were trying to bomb the coke ovens at Winlaton Mill, they never achieved it. One night the whole of the coke works seemed to be on fire. My grandfather looked out of the shelter and said "They have got the ovens tonight." Sadly Granddad Oxley was just recovering from a bad stroke which had affected his mind and so he said to Grandma "It must be Helmet who has been on the telephone telling them where to come." Poor Grandma telling Helmet not to take any notice she told him Granddad's mind was confused. Although there were both German and Italian prisoners working on the farms they hated each other, not wanting to sit beside each other at meal times. Grandma used to fill buckets with apples from the orchard and give them to the prisoners, soon war did come to an end and I remember my Mother lifting me out of bed to see all the bonfires being lit around the whole country. On VE Day the family were all going to church that night, the bus was picking up the prisoners to take them back to camp. Grandma was crying and said it would be a nice gesture if we would all climb on the bus and wish the men well and hope that they would soon get home. We all did with the exception of Auntie Betty. Grandma telling her she sould be ashamed because her son was coming home safely. Lots of the prisoners got off their seats and either shook hands or embraced her. I suppose she had always been kind to them.
When the war ended Mrs Clark, Grandma, Audrey and I went on the bus with the prisoner to look around the camp at Hamsterley Mill. I remember by the time we got there my sister and I were sitting on the prisoners knees. After the war Helmet used to come to the Plaza Picture House in Blaydon. Grandma always insisting that he sat beside us in case of trouble. Helmet went home in late 1946. When he was leaving I was crying me eyes out saying "I'll never see him again." A man who used to help around Clark's farm asked me why I was crying? When I told him he said "Aye and bloody good riddance to him!" I never ever spoke to that man again I thought it was horrible of him. Helmet's home was in Leipzig which was in the Russian zone. He knew his mother and sister had been killed and his father was dead when war started. He was not a Nazi and confessed they had to fight or they would be shot.
I had four uncles on Fathers side serving in the war too. John was in the Marines, Ben and Mike in the Army and Austin was in Submarines so Grandma Callaghan had plenty of worries too.
We always nearly bought our ration of sweets from Mrs Murphy's in Blaydon. At school we got sent apples and parcels from New Zealand and Cocoa from Africa.
When war ended a big field day was held on the cricket field at Swalwell. Uncle George plaited all the horses tails for the floats. My cousin Laura was 15 by this time was crowned the beauty queen. Her prize was a hymn book. There were bonny baby contests, the lovely hair contest. I remember a girl called King won the first prize for her hair. There were also a fancy dress competition and one lady went in as 'She will be coming round the mountain when she comes',she wore pink silk pyjamas, unfortunately there was a beer tent and Meggy had spent all her time in there. When she climbed on the platform to claim her prize she was very drunk and sadly the pyjamas were soaking wet as she had wet herself. My sister and I laughed all the way home but my mother said it was really disgusting.
I always think of a prayer learnt in Holy Trinity Church, Swalwell, one line goes 'Teach the children of every land that it is better to love one another than to fight so that wars may cease and Peace and Brotherhood be set up through the world.
'If only'

As told to Whickham library staff

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