大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥� War by a volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of Edward Green and has been added to the site with his permission. Edward Green fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war I was in my last year at school. Chepstow was a very small Market Town which comprised mainly Chepstow within the Town walls, Garden City and the estate of Bulwark. I can remember at school, since the war broke out we started digging trenches just below the school but I can never remember what happened to the trenches, whether they ever got in them or anything like that because in 1940 I left school and started work as a messenger in the Post Office. Prior to that, of course, the organisations were started, the ARP, the LDV which became the Home Guard, and I also became a Police Messenger in the event of Air Raids.

My father was a Street Warden. If the sirens sounded he went outside to see that no lights were visible and to be ready to extinguish any fire bombs or anything of that nature. How he was supposed to do that I don鈥檛 know because the only means of putting them out was water in a tank up at Vine Cottage. There were no sand bags which were the prescribed method to put out fire bombs, as far as I know.

When these organisations started they were all rather 鈥渁iry fairy鈥�. Nobody knew what they had to do or who was going to tell them what to do. So no one really knew who to go to in the event of something happening. We didn鈥檛 really worry in Chepstow because it was a small Market Town where the cows and sheep still came down through the Town.

Work in Chepstow was in the Shipyard, the Red and White Bus Company, the Railway, which employed quite a lot of people in the shunting yards, the Post Office, the Ministry of Pensions Hospital and the Gas Works.

As I said I worked in the Post Office as a messenger. In the early days of the war people were getting killed and injured and were missing. I had to go and deliver messages to people. I didn鈥檛 know the contents of the telegrams so of course I didn鈥檛 know what to expect when I arrived in a doorway with a telegram. Sometimes there was a lot of cheering and other times there was crying and other times downright shrieking. It was rather frightening for a youngster of my age to know what to do. In hindsight you would think someone would have said to make sure that a neighbour was present. In sheer fright I just got on my bike and went. Anything could have happened which, I believe in a couple of cases it did. I wont go into any details as far as that is concerned.

Just before the war when they started building Dinham we got an influx of mainly Irish labourers to do the work. Also when the Shipyard was being re-organised a lot of building workers arrived from probably Geordie land, Scotland and lots of other places so Chepstow became quite a cosmopolitan place. We never regarded ourselves as Welsh in those days. Chepstow was a little place all on its own, we didn鈥檛 know what we were, I suppose we were mongrels or something of that nature.

Then the troops started arriving. The Racecourse was one of the main areas for the troops, Bulwark Camp, Prisoner of War Camp, St Lawrence Hospital which was a Prisoner of War Hospital, and we already had the Beachley Camp which was used as well.

鈥淲here did the different kinds of troops come from? I know there were Americans here鈥�
Ah that was after. When the Americans came into the war they went to the Racecourse. But before that I think there were a couple of Scottish Regiments, Belgians and Indians, all at the Racecourse. I can鈥檛 for the life of me fathom out where the soldiers of the Bulwark Camp and St Lawrence Hospital were all housed. I suppose it was within the camp somewhere. There were people there because if you went up through the woods at night you were challenged- 鈥滺alt who goes there!鈥� I as a messenger had to do that at times as we worked until 8 o鈥檆lock at night so that was that.

I think that the large number of troops in the area was the reason why the cinema opened. It was a fairly new cinema opened in about 1939 and was opened because they didn鈥檛 know what to do with so many troops and workers at the Shipyard and Dinham.

They still didn鈥檛 open the pubs, mind, on a Sunday. That was taboo! There was also only one club to my knowledge in the area, The British Legion, which was open on Sundays. The rest had to go to go across the river to the 鈥淟ive and Let Live鈥� or the 鈥淩ising Sun鈥� for their drinks. On other days there were shortages, even of drink, some pubs opened and some didn鈥檛. There used to be quite a contingent of bodies either in Beaufort Square or somewhere like that and people would go out on certain ways to find out which pubs were open and to give the signal 鈥淒own here like鈥�

I thought the food rationing was ample. We were far better off with rationing, we seemed to get more food or food that was more nutritious value than we ever got before the war. Of course there were all sorts of fiddles, like the black market and goodness knows what. We always used to ask the butcher for a couple of pennorth of bone for the dog, which we didn鈥檛 have. Bones were quite nice for a stew or something like that. But generally I think everybody was very fair, people seemed to work together then and I think they were far happier except for the fact that the menfolk were away and people didn鈥檛 know what was happening to them. The young girls in Chepstow had a marvellous time, they could have their pick of anybody, didn鈥檛 matter who!

鈥淒id you grow food in the school garden or was that later on?鈥�
No that was before the war mainly. We had the school gardens, yes, and I had an Allotment at the school and we even had apple trees there as well at the top of the garden. Of course, as I say, it wasn鈥檛 all that long before I left school and went to work.

鈥淲hat about the blackout? Did it affect you when you were in the Town?鈥�
Cars had something over the headlamps which only allowed a slit of light through and the street lights had shields over the top so they didn鈥檛 shine directly upwards. But, other than that, after a while you didn鈥檛 notice these things you gradually got to accept them. You see at the Post Office people used to sleep down there in case of fire, anything like that. I take it they did that in other places, like the Red and White and anywhere else because the workers wanted their work to be there for the next day.

鈥淲ere you already away by the time you saw Bristol on fire and the bomb dropped at Beachley?鈥�
No I don鈥檛 think I can remember whether I was here or not.

My mother was out the back when the bomb dropped down at Beachley and the blast brought in a tea chest straight up through those steps. My mother had a flat iron plonked on her arm. My sister was out there with the iron and they rushed to get in to the house, that was the effect of that bomb.

People used to go down on to the railway line to watch the blitz on Bristol and Avonmouth and places like that.

鈥淗ow did you feel at the end of the war? Some people have said they were very relieved and others said they were disappointed that things didn鈥檛 improve as quickly as they had hoped鈥�
At the end of the war I was in the Navy and I remained in the Navy. I mean it was an anticlimax at the end of the war. People just wanted to get out of the forces but I was a long service man so naturally I was living with people who were on tenterhooks to see when they were going to go home. In the Navy we had a lot of suicides. Whether that was a contributory factor that the end of the war had come and people were not getting out as they had expected I don鈥檛 know. I went on a ship straight after the war to South Africa and I think we had about four or five suicides before we left the UK. It鈥檚 such a weird thing to try to fathom out. Very few matelots just dropped over the side and got drowned. It was either a slashing of wrists or some thing of that nature or hanging themselves, which nobody could understand.

The Town football pitch was covered with depth charges or whatever and the only pitch I can remember they played on was one opposite St Lawrence hospital. One day I was going up to watch a football match in my uniform and there was an Italian just behind me. He shouted 鈥淲ait a minute I鈥檓 coming up the road鈥� and he walked up with me. I didn鈥檛 know what to say to the bloke, he seemed to think it was normal. As far as I can gather the prisoners of war used to be taken out on trips in the country and they were able to have a pint of beer or something like that. Of course a lot of them worked on the farms. I take it that St Lawrence was where Emlyn Lewis learnt his trade as a plastic surgeon working with the prisoners who we burnt during the war. Other than that I had no contact whatsoever with the Prisoners of War.

At the beginning of the war a lot the deliveries were made by horse and cart, such as bread, coal, milk and other commodities; I can鈥檛 be specific. The CO-OP was quite a big bakery then down in Nelson Street and the Coal Merchant was down in Station Road. Even then at the beginning of the war old Philip Quattrini, from Newport, used to come down here with his Ice Cream cart. And of all places he used to put it in Dobb鈥檚 Stable so whether that would ever come within the hygiene rules I don鈥檛 know. Whether he mixed his ice cream there or brought it up with him by train I don鈥檛 know. I believe Quattrini had a couple of sons in the Navy. But he was still attacked because he was of Italian origin. He used to like snails, Philip, and if a child in Chepstow could give him so many snails he would give them a cornet free. And, of course, if you pushed his cart up over Hardwick Avenue for him.

鈥淒id they get rations for the horses, for example, were they given coupons for hay.
I couldn鈥檛 tell you how they managed, I suppose hay was plentiful but I don鈥檛 know if they fed them on the things they feed them on today, like nuts and things, I doubt it very much. I expect they just put them out to grass somewhere and had their hay and things of that nature. Not like the animals of today where if you go to the supermarket a third of the shelf space is taken up with animal feed. In the war all the animals had was scraps from your meals and that was it but they managed to thrive quite well.

Hardwick, being the Garden City, was supposed to be a marvellous place to live. But just in the middle of it they decided to put an ash tip which was very smelly and harboured umpteen rats. Not only was the ash tip down there but the ground under the railway line was burning for years. Whether that was the fire from the ash tip or not I don鈥檛 know but that was smoking down there for I don鈥檛 know how many years. It was the thing on a Sunday morning for all the lads in Garden City to gather with dogs and go down to the tip rapidly. Years before as a young lad I learned that one means of getting in the gang was to go down the tip at night and run over the top. I tell you that was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done to see those rats coming all around you. Terry Hardman had his allotment down at the bottom. Mind you he used to have some marvellous produce there because the heat from the ash tip made a vast difference to his vegetables. We used to scour the potatoes from underneath and leave the haulms on the top. But when he came to reap them I don鈥檛 know what happened then. 鈥淧erhaps the rats had some of them鈥� I don鈥檛 think they touched things like that. I think they had plentiful food there although it wasn鈥檛 a rubbish tip as most people burn their rubbish on the fire. Most people had coal fires and of course we didn鈥檛 have so much packaging then as they have today. Everything is completely packaged but it wasn鈥檛 , not then.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got some memories of the American troops who were stationed here鈥�
Well, of course, mainly I was coming home on leave then. The fights in the Public hall used to be terrific. mainly Americans against Americans. I don鈥檛 think the locals got really involved. The white Yanks fought the black Yanks. I鈥檝e been in there myself and to see some of brutality of the American MP鈥檚 ; I mean once they let loose with those sticks of theirs, by God it was terrifying. From what I can gather the black Yanks used to go to the 鈥淨ueens Head鈥� where they sold cider and I believe they used to put a glass of port in a pint of cider and call it 鈥淒ragons Blood鈥�. That鈥檚 what eventually got their blood up. Especially going back to the Racecourse at night. How many got killed going up there I don鈥檛 know. I should imagine it was all hushed up anyway. I expect they were all killed in action. that was the way they got around it. We don鈥檛 know, not for sure, anyway.

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