大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf of Mrs Shirley Hampson
I was aged 8 when war broke out and lived with my Mum and dad and older sister. When Norwich was bombed in April 1942 we had gone to bed as usual in the Morrison shelter in the entrance hall to the house, where all four of us slept. Because I was the youngest I had to get in first and go right up against the wall, then everyone else could climb in. My Dad was always outside and on the edge, at least he could get some fresh air. On the night in question the bombs were dropping and suddenly Mum and Dad rushed upstairs, while my Sister and I laid in the shelter not knowing what had happened. It transpired that an incendiary bomb had come down the chimney of one of the bedrooms and was on fire in the hearth.
My parents put it out with the stirrup pump with the water from the bath, as soon as it was out the water was cut off. A family living nearby were not so fortunate 鈥� they managed, with the help of neighbours to get most of their furniture out of the house into the garden and then and sat and watched their house burn down. No water, no fire engines available.
For the next few days we had water piped down rubber piping and had to take buckets out to the stand pipe for every drop of water we needed. I remember that we were told that this was water from the ponds at Eaton Park, but I don鈥檛 know whether this was true.

At this time I attended Lonsdale School on Earlham Road and I can remember spending a great deal of the day sitting in the dining hall which was all sand-bagged up, where we played such games as 鈥渉angman鈥�, nought s and crosses and 鈥渂oxes鈥�. We had to use every scrap of paper in our very thin exercise books, if we left even two lines at the bottom of the page we had to cut these out and make rough books from them, we even had to write on the covers. We covered our text books in odd bits of wallpaper or brown paper to preserve them. We had utility pens which had no paint on them and felt rough to hold. Later I went on to the High School and there we spent time in the cloak rooms which were also sand-bagged.
We walked or cycled everywhere as there were very few buses and no petrol unless there was some special reason. My Dad was a local Preacher so he was allowed some petrol to go out into the country to take services and we did have a car which was tucked away in the garage most of the time.

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