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15 October 2014
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Free trip to the seaside (part 1)

by gmractiondesk

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
gmractiondesk
People in story:听
Bryan Shaw
Location of story:听
New Moston
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4519848
Contributed on:听
22 July 2005

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Adam Jones from 大象传媒 GMR on behalf of Bryan Shaw and had been added to the site with his permission. Bryan fully understands the site's terms and conditions

I was born at No. 5 Eastwood Avenue, New Moston and was ten years old at the start of World War 2. As a boy I was pretty unaware of the events leading up to the war. I heard people talking about the prospect of war but it didn鈥檛 really sink in until various things happened. A demonstration of Anti-Aircraft guns and searchlights was held at the end of Broadway, on spare land roughly between the railway bridge and the rear of Holy Trinity church where the Territorial Army headquarters now stands. I think that this demonstration must have been part of a recruitment drive. Hundreds of people attended.

Another thing was an air raid siren test about dinner time one day. This seemed to worry my mum and I think this made me realise that the talk of war was serious. Eventually we were issued with gas masks. My father had joined the A.R.P. as a warden and went around the area issuing gas masks and showing people how to wear them. We were in no doubt then that there was going to be a war.

I was in the juniors at New Moston School and my brother Charlie was a pupil in the senior school. We were told that all the children would be evacuated. Parents started getting things ready and our mum made us little haversacks to put our belongings in.

We arrived at school on the appointed day (I think that it was September 1st.) to see all our friends with suit cases, haversacks and bags, full of their belongings along with their worried looking parents. I got on a double decker bus along with the senior pupils so that I could be with my brother. We were all given labels to wear to identify us, and off we set. I was under the impression that this was just a practice and that we would be coming home later. I remember very little of the journey except turning a corner and seeing a windmill right ahead. We were all delighted, particularly when we saw the promenade and the sea. We didn鈥檛 know then but we had been taken to Lytham.

We were all marched from the bus to a church hall where we stood whilst the local people came and inspected us. I think that they were compelled to take in evacuees but some were very choosey as to who they had.

We were taken by a very nice couple named Mr. and Mrs. Aspinall. They lived at 173, Preston Road, Lytham and had a daughter of nine called Dorothy, also Dorothy鈥檚 grandma lived with them. Close by us were two of our friends, Phillip and Jack Cole. They stayed with another nice family. The man was a local preacher and he also worked with Mr Aspinall at the local shipyard.

The Aspinalls had a dog called Colby. It was a lovely dog and we enjoyed taking it walks.

On the Sunday morning we all went to church and it was on the way back that we heard that war had been declared.

We enjoyed being at Lytham and for the first few days we went on the sea front. It was full of evacuees, and also
Soldiers drilling on the green lawns, but we soon got over the novelty of the sea and played nearer home in the fields and by the little river near where we lived.

On the sea front I met a friend of mine called Harry Fozzard. He was staying with his sister Joyce at a large house on the front. I think that they were looked after by servants. I always remember Harry telling me that there were weighing scales in the bathroom. This was unheard of to us.

We went to school at St. Johns church school, and went mornings one week and afternoons the next. We alternated with the local children. Sometimes we would have a lesson sat in a boat on the sea front. My teacher was Mr. Walkden and I remember one of these occasions when he was telling us about Sparrow Hawks and Kestrels, and while he was talking we saw one hovering over the woods in Lowther Park.

Mr and Mrs. Aspinall looked after us very well and we were quite happy. Grandma was an ex teacher and she was a very kindly person. Dorothy accepted us and let us play with her games and have rides on her bike.

The weather was beautiful all September and October, and we were never inside. We had lots of local children as friends

I played the flute and took it with me. My father used to write out the latest tunes for me and send them on. I can remember learning 鈥淩oll out the barrel鈥 and 鈥淩un Rabbit Run鈥. I remember Vera Lyn singing 鈥淕oodnight Children Everywhere鈥 and 鈥淚鈥檓 sending a letter to Santa Claus鈥 on the wireless as we called it.

Our parents sent us sixpence (2 1/2 p) each spends every week. They also visited us a couple of times.
We used to go round the farms asking for windfall apples, which we brought home for Mrs. Aspinall to make into mincemeat.

Charlie and I once walked to Squires Gate Aerodrome. We could see Whitley bombers there and I did a drawing of one when I wrote home.

My letter was opened by the censor and was delivered by a policeman.

There had been no air raids in Manchester so children went home for the Christmas holiday. Charlie and I were put on the train at Lytham and our parents met us at Manchester.

We had a happy time at home and found that most of our friends had come home for good, and after a lot of iffing and butting we decided that we would not return to Lytham

Whilst we had been away all the neighbours had been digging a trench on the grassed area to the rear of Eastwood Avenue. Some of the men like my father who had fought in the First World War organised this. It was the best protection against bombs that they could think of.

Eventually men came round building brick air-raid shelters. Most houses had their own, but where houses backed onto spare land, communal shelters were built. Houses with gardens were given Anderson shelters made of corrugated iron. A communal brick shelter on the same area where the trench had been dug and the key was held by Mr. and Mrs. Swindells who lived at No. 10 Eastwood Avenue.

Early on in the war men were sent round to take all the iron gates and railings etc., to use for the war effort. All the gates and railings were taken from Eastwood a Avenue, and even now most houses in the avenue do not have a gate. We were also asked to take any spare aluminium pans to school. These were sent off to make aeroplanes.

Various houses were allocated buckets and stirrup pumps to deal with incendiary bombs.

The new Sunday School at the rear of Eastwood Road Methodist Church was altered to a gas decontamination centre. This involved fitting lots of showers, bricking up windows, concreting the floor and building Blast Walls. The wood from the stage which was taken out, was given to the scouts and we built a scout hut on Mr Jackson鈥檚 field at the rear of the Sunday School. This was organised by Mr Sam Bardsley who was the scout master. The assistant scout masters were Ben Norris and Arthur Ireland.

Our social life was centred around the church. For concerts the pulpit was pulled down and curtains fitted to make a stage.

The scouts often gave 鈥淣igger Minstrel鈥 shows. Mr. Bardsley was Mr.Interlocutor and the scouts were minstrels. We had great fun burning cork to black our faces.

We had drums and bugles and used to lead the Whitsuntide Walk processions in the absence of brass bands.

On one occasion we went camping along with the guides to Summershades in Grotton, near Greenfield ( Summershades was once a favourite dancing venue and had swing boats etc.)
I was sleeping in a tent with Charlie, Clifford Hopkinson and Harry Fozzard when the air raid sirens went. Mr Bardsley was very worried that our white tent could be seen from the air so he used our khaki blankets to cover it up. It was raining heavily and our blankets were soaked, so we finished up sleeping on the stage of the hall with the guides the other side of the curtains.

As scouts we did things for the war effort like erecting indoor air raid shelters (Morrison Shelters) for elderly or housebound people. We received a National Service badge for this.
The guide captain was Marjorie Campbell.

I eventually moved to North Manchester High School. We had quite a few elderly and lady teachers due to the young men teachers being called up into the services.

There were aircraft gun emplacements and barrage balloons on Broadhurst Fields along side the cemetery. Also there was a Bofors gun and direction finder alongside North Manchester school playing fields.

I remember helping my father to collect his A.R.P.wardens uniform from an ex billiards hall on the corner of Dean Lane, Newton Heath and Warden Lane.
The chief warden was Mr. John Hollis who lived near the chapel on Eastwood Road.
There was a wardens post on Moston Lane East near to the senior school .The playing field railings were removed to allow a concrete raft about 10ft.X 8ft. to be laid on the field at the inner edge of the pavement. On this was built a small brick hut with a reinforced concrete roof. This was the wardens meeting H.Q. when the air raid sirens went.

There was a Police Box opposite Dr. Bannatynes Surgery (The Hollies) on Moston Lane East and a fire alarm outside St. Chad鈥檚 Schoolroom (now the site of the Hazeldene Medical Centre). The Public Telephone was alongside the window Haughton鈥檚 Bread Shop at the end of Eastwood Rd. (now Stansfield鈥檚 ).

Many people who worked at large factories had to do fire watch duty one night per week in case incendiary bombs were dropped.
My father worked at I.C.I. in Runcorn and stayed fire watching every Thursday night.
To kill time in the evenings he enrolled at the local Tech. and took a course in Russian as he thought it might be useful after the war. He passed a few exams and when he was later transferred to Manchester he carried on at the Night School of Commerce.

For a long time things seemed to carry on as normal except that rationing had begun and everyone seemed to be queuing for food. I spent most Saturday mornings shopping for my mum, queuing at Goslings for vegetables and Victor Blacks for Meat etc.
We used to have dried egg to make up for the shortage of fresh eggs. I thought it was lovely.

鈥 British Restaurants 鈥 were opened in various Locations to help workers get a decent meal off the ration. You could get a three course meal for about 1/6.d (7 陆 p). It was plain food but the ladies who ran them worked wonders with the sparse materials that they had. There was a B.R. as they were called in Failsworth on Oldham Road, now the Redvers Press building next to Hope Methodist Church.

I can remember changing our used up ration books for new at the building that is now a pizza shop at the corner of Lightbown Road opposite Broadhurst playing fields. There was another similar office for this kind of thing at what was a large house on the site where Carpet World now stands in Newton Heath.

Petrol was rationed and only people whose work depended on the use of a car could get it. Mr Eastwood, my pal Reggie Eastwood鈥檚 dad was a traveller for Mather and Platt and once when he was going to Liverpool on business he took Reg. and a few of us. We got the ferry to New Brighton and spent a few hours there, then met him back in Liverpool to come home.

My father worked for I.C.I. at Runcorn and travelled there each day during the war and if Mr. Eastwood happened to go there on business he would always offer him a lift home. This was very welcome and much appreciated.

I remember helping my father to issue ear plugs to every house in the area he had to cover as an AIR Raid Warden, and at another time an extra part was issued to improve the efficiency of the gas masks. It was like a green extension and he had to attach them using white sticky tape.

My mother and several other ladies worked part time making bullets at a small engineering works on Northfield Road.

My friends and I used to help Mr. Halliwell our local farmer with his haymaking picking potatoes. This was on land on the other side of the road from Foxdenton Park, on Foxdenton Lane, Chadderton.
Eric, his son who was only our age used to lead the horses and give instructions to everyone, including the farm workers.
When we had finished and were ready to go home, Mr. Halliwell was usually nowhere to be seen and we would hang around the barn or drink milk in the dairy whilst waiting. Eventually he would appear from the farmhouse and pay us 2/6d. (12. 1/2p) or whatever we had agreed. It was hard work picking potatoes.

During the war the government introduced Double Summer Time. Instead of putting the clocks on one hour as we do now in the spring we put them on two hours, which allowed the farmers to utilise all the daylight hours. It was daylight up to 11.00 p.m. in the summer.

We all went to the pictures at least twice a week. We had a good choice of cinemas, but we mostly went to the Roxy. We also had the Queens in Hollinwood, The 鈥 Pop鈥 (Popular Picture Palace) which stood opposite Rowbothams on Oldham Rd. in Failsworth, the Grand, also on Oldham Rd. now used as a church, the Fourways on Moston Lane, and the Avenue Cinema at the end of Victoria Avenue. (Now Quicksave Store.)

The cinema programme changed every Wednesday. The Grand used to have live shows on Sunday nights for shift workers who could not go on weekdays. They were good shows which everyone enjoyed.

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