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I was 12 years old when war broke out, living in Ruthven Road, Litherland, Liverpool and a pupil at Litherland Central School.

We were living in an evacuation area between the railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

My father was a farm and dairy worker and worked at the dairy in Bridge Road where they had cows to be milked, but he was helping out on a farm in Yorkshire near where my Gran lived when the war started, so my mother and I packed our bags and went to Gran's bungalow.

It was very hectic as my mother's younger sister was getting married on September 7th, so there was room for us to live there - our furniture was stored at a relative's farm.

I went to school in Sedbergh, where there were quite a few evacuees from Bradford. My education was at a standstill as they only had the basic subjects in the county school, not like we'd had at Litherland, where my best subjects were maths, geometry and algebra.

My father was off work for a month with lumbago and my mother had bronchitis, so Saturdays, when there was no school, I used to help Gran clean the bungalow and she would give me sixpence — 3d took me to the local picture-house on Saturday afternoon and the other 3d went into the school bank.

I also got a job on Friday evening which was getting on my hands and knees and scrubbing the rough wooden floor of a school-room, for which I was paid 3/-. It was a great help to my parents, who got very little money on the sick.

When my parents were well again, father was offered work at a dairy in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, so, towards the end of 1940, they moved into a house near the dairy for which they paid 16/- a week rent.

What a depressing house it was, all dark green and brown paintwork. The paper in the hall and staircase was almost black and loose from the walls. The tiled floors in the living room and kitchen had all sunk and were uneven with big spaces between concrete skirting and floor where horrible cockroaches used to creep out — something we’d never seen before. The windows were all covered with a coarse net which was stuck on to prevent glass splinters in case they were shattered by bombs.

I left school just before Easter 1941 as my mother had got me a job as a bakery assistant opposite the Plaza Cinema in Allerton Road. I started work at 7.00am Easter week, to help make hundreds of hot- cross buns. It was hot and hard work, and my first week’s wage was a 10/- note of which I kept 2/6. The first thing I bought with my wages after three weeks was a pair of blue brocade slippers with a heel which cost 7/6; I used to wear wooden-soled clogs for work and we used to make so called cherry cakes which were really made of dried carrots as there were no cherries. If customers wanted a birthday cake or wedding cake making they used to save up their rations of butter and sugar and bring them to the shop. As we were on a tight ration we used whale fat for meat pies and other savoury pastries.

What a dreadful time we had during the May Blitz. We had an Anderson shelter in our yard but it was just mud and water at the bottom. Next door had a large table-top Morrison shelter in their kitchen and there was a brick-built shelter in the middle of the road, just outside the house, but we ended up staying in the cellar at the dairy. This had been reinforced with tree trunks and had wooden bunk beds and enough room for three families. We felt safe down there while all the bombing was going on, until we were pestered with ear-wigs coming out of the bark of the trees! They gave me nightmares.

The day Lewis’s department store was bombed was terrible, May 3rd 1941. The air was full of smoke and burnt paper. It was amazing how everyone who was still alive after the bombing raids just carried on with their daily work, even though tired after so many sleepless nights.

We had a spare bedroom in our house so we were allocated a couple and their baby who had been bombed out of their home in Bootle. They stayed ten days then left us with bugs, stinking mattresses and cigarette burns on the lino. My mother was very upset and we had to have the health authorities in to clear the bedroom.

I used to knit for the Royal Air Force Comforts Committee. They’d send 2lb of wool, from Berkeley Square in London, with a pattern book to make pullovers, scarves, helmets, gloves and socks. When I’d knitted the garments I used to send them to London and back would come another 2lb of wool. I’ve still got my RAF Comforts badge and personal message from Marshall of the RAF.

I joined the Girls Training Corps at Rose Lane School (which has now been replaced by Tescos) and for one Sunday in each month I was a voluntary worker for the Red Cross. We used to meet in Church Street and we’d make tea and light snacks and chat with the war injured who were all in light hospital blue suits. Later we moved into the Bluecoat Chambers.

I never had enough clothing as I was growing up so my mother gave me her coupons as she could still wear the clothes she made or bought before the war. I remember making myself a dress out of two old ones of my mother’s. One was navy blue and the other a light blue; it was a much-admired dress. We just managed with food rationing — no luxuries — and we used to eat whale meat every few weeks but it wasn’t bad, better than nothing.

I remember one morning going to work, of course everywhere was blacked-out, no street lamps or house lights, when the sky lit up like a giant Christmas tree with fairy lights, it was a barrage balloon which had been struck by lightning.

From Mrs Barbara Longley (nee Handley)
Liverpool 2005

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