大象传媒

Changes were taking place in the Stretton Family. Soon after war was declared Lil answered an advert in the situations vacant column of the 'Derbyshire Times' It was asking for domestic servants to work at Chatsworth House, where Penrhos College Girls' Boarding School was to be evacuated from Colwyn Bay. Their school had been requisitioned by one of the wartime Ministries and the Duke of Devonshire was happy to have a school of genteel young ladies and their teachers housed in his beautiful home, rather than some military unit.
Another sister, Doreen, was not happy in her job 'out service', so she, too, applied for a job at Chatsworth - a place none of us had heard of at that time. They each received telegrams to say 'Come prepared to stay'. Both of them met their future husbands there. Lil would marry one of the Chatsworth gardeners, and Doreen would marry the son of the man who farmed the Home Farm in Chatsworth Park. Eventually tess, the sister between Lil and Doreen, went to join them at Chatsworth, but she was already engaged to be married to Cyril, a Dronfield man, and was planning her wedding which would take place in December 1940, at Clowne Parish Church.
This was the first wartime wedding in the family, and involved a great deal of scrimping and saving of rations, and gathering together ingredients for the wedding cake. Nell had wisely registered her ration books at the 'Meadow Dairy', while Mums loyalties remained with Barlborough Road Co-op. This way we were in line for any 'under the counter' dealing from two sources. Nell was blessed with the sort of personality that could charm anyone, and was also the mother of three sons whose father was 'serving overseas', which seemed to count for a lot when asking if dried fruit was on offer, and a tin of ham might find its way into her shopping basket. She'd also return now and then triumphantly bearing a tin of Lyle's golden syrup - treasure indeed.
In December 1940 Goering decided Sheffield was a prime target for his Luftwaffe's bombs. It was also the night that Nell chose to ice Tess's wedding cake. The day before she had applied the almond icing, made, I believe, from a mixture of a small amount of ground almonds supplemented with ground rice, egg yolks and almond essence, and had put on the first layer of icing. Now the more intricate decoration had to be applied.
The siren had sounded a little while before, but we were getting quite blase`in our reaction to the warning. As yet we'd experienced only a few incendiaries, dropped in outlying places - one girl brought one to school that had been dropped near their farm, and we were allowed to inspect it closely. So Nell carried on filling the icing bag. She couldn't abandon the job and let the icing set in the bowl. This was the last of the precious icing sugar and egg whites. She'd just started on the trellis work round the sides of the cake when the first explosion shook the house and rattled the windows. Valiantly she worked on - she wasn't a regular soldier's wife for nothing. I don't think the cake would have won prizes for precision, each crump and rattle made her hands shake, but when finished, and garnered with silver cachous, those magical silver balls, it looked beautiful, and was a tribute to her courage and perseverance. It tasted good too. Of course there was only the one tier. I only knew of all this at Nell's telling next day. Mum and I, along with the cat and the dog, the canary and the budgie, were under the table while the raid lasted. Nell and her boys were in the little terrace house in New Barlborough.
Tess and doreen were in sheffield, shopping for their wedding outfits. Doreen was to be the only bridesmaid, and Tess had chosen not to have a white wedding. They were about to catch a bus to Dronfield when the siren had gone and took shelter in the cellar of a public house somewhere near Fitzallen Square' along with a great many other people. They were shaken and appalled by the terrible devatation that met them when they finally got out of that cellar. It was a memory that stayed with them all their lives. Tess died a few years ago, but Doreen still talks about that terrible experience. They were among the lucky ones who walked away unscathed- physically at least. Tess always said it didn't seem right to experience such happiness in anticipation of her marriage when there was such sorrow and destruction everywhere. The Luftwaffe struck again two nights later, only days before the wedding, and Sheffield was again the target. The wedding was a subdued affair really; the reception was held at our home. Cyril's parents and one or two of his sisters were able to travel from Dronfield by corporation and East Midland buses. Five only of we sisters were there, including the bride. Poor Ruby had suffered more than any of us in the Sheffield blitz. Fourteen years old in May 1940, she had gone to work for a family in Sheffield on leaving school in July, and spent the two nights of the bombing in the cellar of the house with the family' The house suffered badly during the second night's raid and they were buried under the debris. Fortunately the cellar had been reinforced and they were finally located and dug out. Although she put on a brave face at the wedding it was obvious she had been through a pretty horrendous experience. The word trauma hadn't been heard of then. She certainly received no councelling, but stoically returned to her job before exchanging her environment for the peace and beauty of Chatsworth, the fourth sister to work in that glorious place.
Tess and Cyril were blessed with a very happy marriage and went on to produce three beautiful daughters; the first, Joan, born in August 1942, followed by Judy in May 1945, and finally Pauline, in May 1948.

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