大象传媒

Father:John Alec Sidwell, RAF Sargeant 1545286 during the war
Mother: Florence May Sidwell (Shaw)
Grandfather(Maternal):Thomas Shaw -Sergeant Engineer in WW1
Uncle: Harold(Bill) Shaw - Fireman Lancaster Place now Leicester Central
Aunt: Olive Eunice Shaw
Myself: Pamela McGowan (Sidwell)

I was born in 1937 and lived in Glenfield until 1967. My parents house was the first to be built in Faire Road, Glenfield - opposite County Hall- in 1934. The land was bought as part of the Faire Estate. Our house was at the top of Faire Road which was a dead end - farm fields beyond this extending into the village of Glenfield.

In 1939 when war broke out my Dad joined the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers) later to become the Home Guard, known nowdays as 'Dad's Army' and he was on duty the night a German plane came down in the field between Groby and Anstey in 1940. Later he volunteered to join the RAF and was sent to India for 15 months during 1945 returning in 1947. During these months he kept in touch by air mail and I still have these letters today.

AIR RAIDS

We occasionally had air raid warnings and the siren sound travelled all the way from Lewis's tower in Leicester. I remember one night being held in my mum's arms (wearing a siren suit to keep warm) standing with my dad at the front door of our house watching planes going over to Coventry when Coventry was being bombed. About 2 or 3 days later when my dad had returned to RAF Church Lawford near Rugby, my grandfather who was born in Coventry (1878) decided he must go to see what dammage had been done to his childhood home. So my Aunt,Uncle,Mum, Grandad and myself all travelled to Coventry on the bus just to satisfy my grandad. However on arrival the firemen would not allow him near the street so we had to travel back on the bus. All I can remember being sick on the way home.

SCHOOLING

I began my education in 1942 at the village Infant School. I remember three of the teachers especially the Head, Miss Marshall. She had a soft side to her and if you took her flowers from your garden she always had to give you something in return, usuallly a sprig of lavender.

We always marched into school to piano music - very militarylike in those days. We also had air raid practices. Shelters were erected underground at the far end of the school playing field (the local library now) and we had to run in a certain time to get to them. They were dark, damp and cold, not at all pleasant so thank goodness we never had to use them.

We did not have dinners when I first started to school so I had to walk home everyday between 1-2 miles. As time passed however they were introduced and we had them in the school corridors where tables were set up each day. I can remember they were horrible !! I refused to eat them and had to sit next to the teacher who forcibly spoonfed me. We also had milk delivered in a large churn and it was ladled into our beakers, if you wanted any more you had to pay a halfpenny.

In 1945 I transferred to the Junior School in Ratby Lane some half a mile away. We called it the 'cowshed' as you can imagine from the nickname it was very rural - toilets were 'elson' type and emptied by council men once a week. We had to walk to the Infants School everyday for our dinners where a 'Horsa' building had been erected. Dinner had slightly improved and most days we finished our meals with either a stick of carrot or sugared swede. One day we had floods in the village and these had to be negotiated on our way to dinner and on the return journey. In the afternoon when we finished school we had a great time in the water, not so the next day when the Head gave us two of the best - the girls on the hand and the boys on the bottom. We didn't dare paddle again.

In my last year at Junior School I was given the trusted job of collecting the schools post from the new Post Office. The village Post Office for many years had been an old cottage whose front room had been converted into a shop/post office, so whilst waiting to catch the bus home from school in the afternoon we used to buy licquorice sticks, aniseed balls or if they sold out an oxo cube for a penny. Then the big day arrived when we heard the local grocer - Bents- had received some Walls Ice Cream. We queued for quite a long time and were very pleased when we got home with our Chunk of gorgeous ice cream. This was luxury, a real treat, needless to say we had to get home quickly before it melted.

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