大象传媒

I was born in 1936 so when the war came it just became a way of life. We, Mum and younger sister Iris, lived in a house divided into two flats in Bow in East London, very handy for the docks because Dad was a merchant seaman.
The Anderson shelter dug in the garden was a play area when it wasn't full of water.I don't remember using it or going to a shelter but Mum told me we were moving because the roof had been bomb damaged, and so we moved to Chelsea in central London.I now know that the Battle of Britain was in full flow and I can remember seeing the skies full of trails left by the aircraft, during our frequent trips to the communial air-raid shelter where we sang to overcome our fears during the bombing and the huge bangs when one landed nearby. Also how we cheered when the 'all clear' sounded and we were allowed out from the fusty smelling shelter into the 'fresh air' of smoke and burning caused by thr raid.
One beautiful sunny day we were returning from one of our many visits to the park and the siren started. Mum, my sisiter in the pram, and me ran to take cover in our own house but not before a sight I shall never forget for entire sky was full of German aircraft flying in formation. This was a huge raid on the docks. Mum made up a bed under the table where all three of us sat listening to the carcophony of noise of gunfire and explosions. After this raid I was frightened of Germans being around outside in the street probably because of the everyday public conversation about the constant attacks and where had been hit during the last raid.
Within a shortspace in time following another heavy raid the three of us spent the entire night in the communial shelter. I had learned the song 'Hitler has only got one ball' and had a good time singing it when Mum was too busy attending to Iris to tell me off. We left the shelter at dawn after the 'all clear' and walked up the street with the sky bright red from the glow of the burning docks, or so we were informed by an ARP man we met. We three turned the corner into our street to be confronted with a barrier across the road and a police officer who said we couldn't go any further because a landmine had exploded in the area and it was too dangerous to proceed. Mum pleeded with the officer to be allowed to get some clothing for us children, (I was in pyjamas, raincoat, and wellingtons having been snatched from bed when the sirens sounded). The policeman called an ARP chap and he and Mum left Iris and me with the copper. Mum returned a little later with an armful of clothing saying our house had been hit by the blast and now had no roof or windows, and that she walked over the front door to get inside the remaining walls. One cannot imagine the anguish Mum must have suffered then and during the next few months, she was homeless with no relatives or friends closeby, Iris was two and me four, husband overseas somewhere, and probably very little money.Obviously there were centres to go to because it was the misfortune of many, but she must have felt she was carrying an unfair burden for a 25 year old Mum.
She told me later in life that we went first to Putney but were then moved to Clacton into a challet villiage, possibly Butlins first holiday camp, where I remenber attending my first schooling.However it was not for long because we were then evacuated to Derbyshire.
The train journey I recall very clearly mainly because the carriages were so full mostly by soldiers and all their kit and rifles, so there was no room for a lone mum with two small kids, pram and a couple of bags with our few possessions.Taking pity on us some kit was moved off the luggage rack and Iris me and another child were put up there out of harms way.On arriving at Crewe it seemed as the whole world was there trying to to change trains or queue for a drink.The second part of our train jouney to Derby was uneventful and we caught the single daily bus to Gravelpit Cottages about one mile from Etwall.
We were to stay with Gladys and Ted Rowe, distant never previously met relatives of Mum,who lived in a three bedroomed farm cottage. Gladys a small dumpy lady was about 22 years old who should have been enjoying her second year of marriage, but now had an extra three persons in her house as well as two other evacuees from Birmingham!There were eight cottages and miles and miles of fields and no air-raid shelters, in fact it was another world from the war in London.The only sign of war were aircraft flying from a nearby RAF training unit, and a fuel dump hidden within a huge wood some two miles away.I loved it.The freedom, the walking to school, getting a lift sometimes on the horse drawn milkfloat,picking mushrooms in the fields,everything was super.I remember it was such a backwater that after collecting car numbers for a week we had only twenty different numbers.
One night Ted took me up to the loft and opened the skylight to watch an air raid taking place some distance away.The horizon was red and there were continuous explosions. Ted very seriosly said I should never forget that evening because a lot of people will have died due to the war, and I haven't for I believe it was the night Coventry was flattened being just before Christmas of 1941.
During the summer we spent at Etwall there was an incident that brought home the war even to the idyllic Gravelpit Cottages. It was warm and all the families living there were having tea in their respective gardens- picnics to us kids. A stranger appeared having walked right across a field and asked the way to the nearby Army unit who guarded the fuel dump. With all the road signs removed during the war so as not to assist the enemy, this was not an unusual request. However after giving him directions the adults began thinking more about the man and then realised he had walked through the middle of a hayfield which no countryman would do. The local Home Guard were alerted and a huge search began which culminated in the poor man being shot when failing to halt when ordered. It was later established that he was carrying sufficient information about local service units to declare him a spy.

Mum was in regular contact with her father who worked for Shorts building aircraft at Stroud in Kent and was very pleased to hear that he had been transferred to a new factory being built on the shores of Lake Windermere miles away from the constant bombing from the German airforce based in France.The company were also building houses for their workers and if she was willing to work in the factory he could get her one of these homes. There was a snag she would need to be working before the houses were erected, but if she was prepared to share Nana's new house there it would eventually solve our homeless situation. Mum did not hesitate and in March 1942 we were on the train again this time heading for Calgarth.

The new housing estate known as Calgarth was 200yards from the shore of Lake Windermere with panoramic views of all the major hills in Southern Lakeland.Only some of the 150 houses had been built but being only the size of large caravan they would completed by September with a school opening in the December. Nana and Pop's tiny house already had two evacuees so that when Mum, Iris, and I arrived , squash was an understatement.Apart from Shorts staff who moved from Kent the rest of the houses were occupied by families like ourselves- homeless but prepared to work at the factory.There was Geordies, Jocks, Brummies,Liverpudlians and many others from the various cities ravaged by the bombing. This huge influx of 'foreigners'into a community who had escaped much of the unpleasantness of the war,(only seven bombs fell in the entire county throughout the conflict), made us all war veterans with the locals.
So from the disruption of London to the quieter part of Derbyshire my family finally landed up in heaven amonst the hills and lakes of the most beatiful part of the world. We got our little house within thre months of arrival and although we didn't have much furniture it was complete bliss for the rest of the war. That is apart from following the fortunes of my father who remained in the merchant navy until 1946, but that is another story.

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