大象传媒

I was 7 when we moved to Ewyas Harold at the start of World War Two. My father was a signalman up at Pontrilis Signal Box. We moved up from Newport Wales. Just after we moved the whole area where we used to live was flattened by a bomb and we lost many friends and family.

We used to have air raid practise at Ewyas Harold School. The headmaster was called Arthur Phillips and he used to make a signal and we all had to rush up to Ewyas Harold Common and hide. At another signal we all had to run back down to school. Of course a few boys decided not to go back to school and the next day they got the cane. Their names were Derek Gardner and Dennis Craddock. During the long holidays we went crop picking. I went potato picking where there were Italian prisoners of war. They were not as good workers as the Germans, they tended to be lazy.

One big impact on the village was the munitions depot at Abbey Dore. We had evacuees in Ewyas Harold and a bit later some German prisoners of war who were sent to work on farms. It was quite common to see soldiers going past in truck loads. If you went up onto the common, you would see them all blacked up, practicing!

I remember getting my sweet ration, everything seemed to be rationed. The local butcher was also a slaughterer and we boys used to go and watch on slaughter day. Cows or sheep or whatever would be stunned and slaughtered. There used to be a river of blood running out down to the drain which led to the brook. The brook used to run red which was a very strange thing to see. We used to catch huge fish and eels in that brook because they had fed on all the blood and bits of meat! We used to set night lines to catch fish. We would tie the line to a branch and put on the bait. Next morning we would get up really early and rush down to see if the line was tight which meant we had caught something. It was all very exciting.

Some of my friends kept ferrets to catch rabbits. They would send the ferret down a hole then put a net over the hole and wait until the ferret chased the rabbit out. We had great fun. We knew how to skin eels and rabbits. We also used to collect birds eggs. I know that would be frowned on now but we did have an unwritten rule that we would only ever take one egg from the nest. One boy took all the eggs once and we blacklisted him and nobody spoke to him for a very long time. We used to build huts and camp in the hills. We were always up there, we had so much freedom it was wonderful.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Graham Sprackling and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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