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This contribution to WW2 People’s War was received by the Action Desk on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Norfolk. The story has been written and submitted to the website by Jane Bradbury (Volunteer Story Gatherer) with the full permission and on behalf of Patricia Townshend.

I was five years old and the first memory I have was that something came over the radio which made my parents seem glum. I climbed onto my father’s knee (it was his half day) and he told me about the First World War and that there was going to be another war. I can remember lighting up times. We used to have canes at the bottom of the blackout curtains to make sure the light didn’t show. My father built an air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. We heard the sirens at night and went to the shelter which had double bunks on each side. We were three children all dressed in ‘siren suits’, which were like thick, coloured dressing gowns with trousers, very convenient to wear when we had to move to the shelter.
One night a bomb fell in St. Clements Hill and left a big crater. The debris came over the shelter and we thought the house had gone. Our parents comforted us.Blyth school lost its gymnasium and St. Augustin’s school was bombed at night. St. Mary’s Baptist Church was also bombed twice, early on in the war. It was patched up, but later on was badly damaged and rebuilt after the war. We used Stuart Hall (now Cinema City) and Suckling Hall as a temporary Church.
My mother’s brother, the youngest of the family, was a pilot who was killed on the return journey after being shot down after a raid on a Munich ball bearing factory.
We (my sister and brother and I) went to live with one of my father’s brothers in Derby for six months but we weren’t happy as my aunt was a bit strict.
I went to Sunday School as a child at Calvert Street Hall .We had to walk as we were not allowed to go on a bus on a Sunday.
I can remember going to the shelter when I went to St. Augustin’s school. These were built up ones in the playground. We had to carry gas masks all the time and practise putting them on.
I had the day off for VE day and VJ day but my father didn’t.

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