大象传媒

This story has been submitted by a PW volunteer on behalf of the CSV Actiondesk at 大象传媒 Radio Bristol
My family and I were living on Trelawney Road when the war started. I was only 14 years old, but I grew up very quickly.

I had two good male friends and the three of us would frequently go out and enjoy all sorts of entertainment. Most of all I enjoyed ballroom dancing and we would regularly go to Reid's Academy in Hampton Road.

One Sunday evening my friends and I went to a concert at the Empire cinema in Old Market St, on our way the sirens went off, but like most people we took no notice of them. Shortly after we sat down in the cinema, the incendary bombs started to fall and before long, from Castle St, Old Market and right in to the city centre, all was ablaze.

It was really late before we were allowed to leave the cinema and we couldn't get back into Cotham, so we all had to head for my friends home in Bedminster. Their parents were of course delighted to see us alive and well.

The phones weren't working so my friends father and the boys tried to reach my house on foot. They went across the Downs and Whiteladies Rd but were unable to get to my parents house because of an unexploded bomb.......with the help of a friend, we did eventually get a message to my parents, letting them know I was safe and well. I later found out that my father had refused to leave the house as I wasn't at home and he insisted on waiting there for me.

Days after an enormous bomb dropped on Tyndalls Park Rd and the explosion was massive. My brother and his friend who were standing at our open front door were blasted up the stairs and along the hall. There were a lot of broken windows that night but no one in our house was injured.

The fronts of most people's properties in Tyndalls Park Road had been blown right off. People's belongings and pictures were exposed for everyone to see, it was a very strange sight.

Amongst the horrors of the war we still managed to enjoy many happy times. Often my father would bring home soldiers he had might and expect my mother to feed them. I have often since wondered how she managed to feed all those mouths on the meagre rations we had, she was an excellent cook though and somehow managed to always provide an excellent meal.

We had a full size billiards table in our basement and one of the funniest things I remember is our neighbours coming to shelter under it. My father and I came into the room to see all these buttons sticking out from under it, he made me laugh because he said if a bomb did drop then they would all be chopped in half by the heavy slates in the table

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