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I was six months old when the war broke out and for seven years an only child. We lived in a rural part of North Staffordshire and our house was surrounded by a field where many happy hours were spent playing with three girl friends who lived on the other side.
Soon after the war started my parents decided to sleep in the dining room on a mattress and I slept in my playpen under the table. A blast wall made initially from tea chests (my father was a potter and used them for packing) was built round the window but later replaced by bricks. My father was medically unfit to fight but served in the Royal Observer Corps (he cut a red circle from the cloak of my doll to put behind his beret badge —I wasn’t pleased!). He had to do Observer duty at night and I can remember waiting at the gate in the mornings as he walked home.
The milk was delivered by pony and trap and measured into our jugs by the milkman. Haymaking was an exciting time as there were no tractors or combines — just Tom the carthorse and men with scythes and pitchforks.
The only bomb I can recall dropping nearby was aimed at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Blythe Bridge (now Creda). Fortunately it missed but landed near my Grandmothers, shattering the windows in her garage and covering my Grandfather’s MG Sports car (laid up for the duration of the war) in splinters of glass.
Although clothes were rationed my mother was an excellent needlewoman and knitter and I was always well dressed. We holidayed at Penmaenmawr in North Wales and I remember endless sunshine, blue skies and building sandcastles on the lovely beach — it never rained then!

I was very lucky and the war made little impression on me but the sound of a siren still makes my stomach turn. I can remember the celebrations for VE Day including races for the children. There were prizes for everyone except the last to finish — guess where I came — I was too busy waving to my parents and missed the start!

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