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When the war broke out I was around the age of six. My memories are sketchy although I do remember one particular night. On this night my father took me to see his brother — my uncle. When we set out it was light, but we had to take torches — everybody had a torch in those days because of the blackout.
The journey, as I know today, was about four miles and we walked! It was practically dark when we left my uncle’s house and we had gone about two miles when the air raid sirens went.
We heard the planes and then bombs dropping.
My father took me into a pub called the Lamb Inn in Dukenfield for shelter and probably a pint for him. The pub still stands today and must be getting on for 100 years old now. When the all clear sounded we set off for home. When we reached Chapel (still in Dukinfield) you could see right over to Manchester and Manchester was ablaze the whole sky was lit up with a red glow for miles. When we reached home my mother was sat in the chair crying and nursing my brother.

I also remember ration books and coupons as I had to do most of the shopping then. I particularly remember E coupons especially — they were for sweets.
The only other memory I have is going on holiday with a school friend to visit her sister in Grimsby. There was a large Prisoner of War camp and we used to go there some days to look at the prisoners. We went for a fortnight and ended up staying two months because we both caught scarlet fever!

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