大象传媒

When I was three years old workmen started making large square holes in a field near our house in Hull. The holes were deep and frightened me. (I still don鈥檛 have a head for heights). Some time later men started building concrete structures (which I now know to be air raid shelters). I went over to them with my little wooden wheelbarrow. A man asked me if I wanted it filling with concrete. I said no and pointed to the sand which he then put into my barrow. I have memories of being evacuated to the village of Drax for a short period. Daddy had been called up for the army but after a short while he was released as he was the only person who could maintain the machines where he worked.

My next memory is of the air raid sirens in Sheffield. My brother and I were having supper when the air raid sirens wailed on the 12th December 1940 and as usual Mummy ushered me (4 year old Brian) and carried my brother (1 year old Keith) into the cellar, which was our air raid shelter. We had a couple of deck chairs down there, and sat down to await the 鈥渁ll clear.鈥� Daddy was on fire watch duty, a dangerous duty which involved standing on the roof of the factory where he worked to report other factories being hit by bombs. If his factory had been hit he would have had little chance of survival. Before the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� sounded through Daddy came home and told us to come up from the cellar, and he took us to a neighbour鈥檚 house several doors along the street. I was told later that an incendiary bomb had landed on our roof and was burning from the attic downwards. Daddy then went back to rescue what he could before the fire got too dangerous. This air raid lasted nine hours. After the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� we all walked to my Grandparents home, houses were on fire all over the place and I said 鈥淒addy! Why don鈥檛 the fire engines come to put the fires out?鈥� He said that they were putting fires out at more important places, (i.e. factories and businesses). I had lost my gold sovereign in that raid (some weeks earlier our family and grandparents had been out walking. Daddy saw what he thought was a farthing on the ground and passed it by. Grandpa picked it up 鈥� a gold sovereign and gave it to me.

Our next residence was in the Arbourthorne area of Sheffield. The school had long air raid shelters and we children had regular practices of going into the shelters and sitting quietly on the benches along both walls. We also had to carry our gas masks everywhere we went and had to put them on occasionally during lessons. After three years we moved to Parson Cross just outside the Sheffield boundary. Our school was in the village of Ecclesfield. Air raid shelters again and this time growing vegetables in the 鈥榙ig for victory鈥� campaign. The vegetables were sold to pupils families. As this was a new council estate begun before the war, German prisoners were employed building roads for the completion of the estate after the war ended. A German blacksmith had his workshop in the field at the foot of our garden, and he would make small toys for children in exchange for sandwiches or a little coffee. We didn鈥檛 like the British soldiers who would occasionally chase us away.

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