´óÏó´«Ã½

I was at school in the war. I lived at Wikey. I had to walk two miles every day, all weathers, never missed school much. I enjoyed it — mostly history and geography. There were a lot of evacuees at the school. We played whips and tops and bowling (with a hoop and a stick). When we walked to school it being 2 miles, we used the telegraph poles — we used to run one and walk one, break the monotony.

Mother had two evacuees from Birkenhead, a brother and sister, a bit older than me, about 12 months. Then when they went back — we had a RAF pilot from Rednall and his wife lodging with us.

Mother was the crossing keeper.

She let the farmers across the line. There were three farmers that used it. The gate was at the side and she used to loosen it and let the farmers across.

The summer months were the busiest — not much to in the winter.

We had to let cows and horses in them days across. Then you had the tractors and the farm implements.

On the side of the railway was a little indicator box and it showed you when a train was coming. It was red and white, and when it showed white it was clear, and then this changed to half and half, red and white and when it showed all red — it was then danger and you couldn’t loose anyone across.

She didn’t sit watching it, she would look at it when a farmer came.

My Dad worked on the railway on the day, on there 30 years and he was in the Home Guard in West Alton at night. I don’t know how they did it, giving us cover and then having to get up for work again the next morning.

He was a length man, repairing the tracks and seeing they was in good order. There was five to a length.

There were four of us, Pearl was born after the war in ’48.

We were self-sufficient out there, it was way out in the wilds — Baggymoors they called it.

They ploughed up all the fields when the war started, I used to walk beside them with the horse and the plough. Nice memories to keep those.

I used to help with the harvest, it was fun when the rats came out. We used to try and bat the rats and the dogs were about. All sizes of rats.

We used to cut thistles for one farmer, well me Dad did with the scythe and the farmer used to let us have the rabbits, for cutting them. There was a farm a quarter of a mile away.

And we had the river, and from there you got wild duck — there was everything you wanted.

Lots of people don’t realise Wikey was bombed, five bombs all the same night, there’s a long bank going to Wikey and half way down there you can still feel it in the road — it blew half the road up. We had a search light battery you see with a small camp. One of the five, a smaller one blew a cart into the pit. Mother got us all underneath the stairs. The biggest one dropped just a field away between us and End Parks — there was a big crater, you could have got a house in that.

This story was submitted to the people's War site by Sarah Shires (the volunteer) of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Walter Humphries (the author) and has been added to this site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.