大象传媒

The following is a memory from my mother, Mrs. Muriel Boydell, d.o.b 08.07.18

During the war, I lived on a fairly isolated farm in Orford, Warrington, Lancashire, where my husband, James, was the farm bailiff. Our son, Geoffrey, was born on 14.12.41.
The farmhouse lacked any real amenities: there was one cold water tap, no bath, an Elsan toilet and a copper, lit by a fire, for laundry. The shops were a mile walk from the farm and the walk took me past a tannery where the smell of hides was strong and distinct.
We had two Italian prisoners of war working on the farm who were brought each day from their base at Peel Hall, a large farmhouse in the area. They had breakfast at the Hall, lunch with us on the farm and returned to the Hall for an evening meal. We got on well with the men and one of them married a local girl and stayed after the end of the war.
James was an air raid warden and I was often alone at the farm in the evening. For security, we had a large dog tethered by a chain in the farmyard. I had nothing to do with the dog who was essentially a guard dog and quite frightening to me.
One Sunday morning, I had cooked a joint of lamb purchased with my precious coupons. The joint represented two days' meals. James was not at home and then I realised that Geoffrey was also missing. He was a very lively two year old who was always on the go and getting himself into potentially dangerous situations on our isolated farm. I needed eyes in the back of my head to watch him. I called for him and to my horror realised that he had found a good hiding place in the back of the dog's kennel. I was distraught. Totally alone and terrified of the dog, I did the only thing that I could think of and that was to sacrifice Sunday's and Monday's meals as a decoy for the dog while I snatched Geoffrey from the back of the kennel. This seemed a huge sacrifice at the time but of course, we look back on it now with amusement.

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