大象传媒

The winter of 1940-41 was a very cold one, with the temperature below freezing for several weeks which caused the lakes to freeze over solid. The ice was thick enough to support walking on, and the owner of the large house invited the whole class of his grandchildren to come and stay for a day. They arrived on a Midland Red Bus, and they had all brought ice skates with them. I had the loan of a pair of ice skates that you strapped onto your shoes, they weren't as good as proper ice skates, but they were sufficient to join in the fun. I had been Roller skating for some time before the war, I remember saving up five shillings to buy my skates from Marks and Spencer's, so I had plenty of practice. We used to skate up and down Reservoir Road, because it had nice smooth surface, something that would be unthinkable today. It was around this time that my brother Reg, who would be about eight years old now, was found a place in the farm, which was part of the estate where I was. I'm not sure whether it was the school, who decided that he should move from the far side of Hereford to Whitbourn, or whether it was all arranged by my father. But I was instructed to go by bus to Hereford and meet Reg at the bus station. I waited at the appointed meeting place and after about half an hour this young boy came up to me and said "Are you Jack Harding", it seems amazing to me now, but, although we hadn't seen each other for about a year we both had altered so much that neither of us was sure who the other was. Also, as I have mentioned, he was only eight years old, and yet he had been trusted to make his own way to the meeting place, because there was no grown ups accompanying him, and he must have travelled somewhere between five and ten miles by bus, to get to the bus station, and whoever dispatched him couldn't have been sure that I would be there to meet him. Another instance of how things have changed in fifty years. I delivered him to Mrs Pugh the farmers wife, and although the farm was only a few minutes from where I was living, because of the age gap, (5 years) we didn't have a lot in common, he had his friends and I had mine, we didn't see each other as much as you might think. It was the same arrangement at this local school as was at Much Cowan, we had our own teacher but shared the one class room. This didn't last long though, because the children from Birmingham were getting fewer and fewer, as they gradually drifted back home, so eventually the teacher went back as well. As I have mentioned before, as I didn't have a mother to look after me I suppose my father thought it best that I stay in the country until it was time for me to leave school altogether, so I stayed on with just a few other boys from Birmingham. This meant that I now became just another pupil at the school, and I was taught by the local teacher who was the daughter of the chauffeur to the estate where I was staying. Before she became our teacher, we used to call her Nellie, the same as all the workers on the estate, this had to stop now and we had to call her Miss Pitt. On Wednesdays we did woodwork, for this we had to catch a bus to Bromyard which is a small town about halfway between Worcester and Hereford. We had a whole day here and I used to look forward to this lesson very much. I can't remember making anything useful though, I think all we managed, was doing one or two joints, like half-lap and Mortise and Tennon. I had never done woodwork before because at my school back home we did metal work, and I made quite a lot of things, such as a small plate with a curved spike for storing bills, an Iron stand, for standing the old fashioned flat smoothing iron on, a toasting fork which was a three pronged fork about 12 inches long so that you could hold a piece of bread in front of an open fire to toast it without getting your fingers burnt. I also made a copper Ash tray, which was made from a flat piece of copper beaten into shape over a block of wood that had a hollow in the centre. I also made a Scoop out of Tin Plate soldered together with soft Solder. The only item that seems to have survived, is the Copper Ash Tray, which was used in the house right up until the time that cigarette smoking became out of fashion.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of John Harding and has been added to the site with his permission. John Harding fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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