大象传媒

Part two of an edited oral history interview with Mr. David Sharwood about his schoolboy experiences of living in Pinner during World War II. The interview was conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淎t Pinner County later on, going on towards the end of the war, we had the Doodle Bug raids. And of course these were daytime as well as nighttime and a lot of time was spent down in the shelters much to the teacher鈥檚 annoyance because they lost us teaching time. But there was a stage when it got so bad the Doodle Bugs being fired at London, the older children had holiday camps. We were not in an evacuation area but Wembley which is London side of Pinner was an evacuation area. Going a bit further out into Buckinghamshire, out of London from Pinner was a reception area so we were in the middle. But holiday camps were arranged for the older children of Pinner County where they went on farms for at least a month of their summer holidays. This had been going on all through the war but when the Doodle Bugs came the Head Master said to our parents, 鈥榃e will try and arrange to get your year out into the country for a break. There鈥檇 be no guarantee of work like there are with the other farm camps.鈥� So we all agreed to go, it would be a great adventure. So we were sent to a place called Sutton鈥攗nder-Brailes which was not far from Shipston-on-Stour, between there and Banbury. Everyday we were taken out in trucks provided by the Agriculture Executive Committee, virtually joy riding, going round farms looking for work. In some places we ended up hoeing carrots and things like that. Hoeing them up to get the weeds out of them. They were no were near harvesting time for winter crops, so we were weeding them out. One time we were working near Warwick Castle eating our packed lunches that they gave us. We went over onto an island near the lake around the castle. Some of it was a revelation in that the girls 鈥� it was an old farm house that had been used as a Land Army Girl鈥檚 hostel and they had abandoned it. But the boys had to have straw mattresses in the barn and of course all the bugs and things were biting us to bits! We were covered in bites when we came home.

I had joined the Scouts at Eastcote. It was the nearest Troop that I could identify, because one of my classmates was already in the Troop. Back at home, long before the Doodle Bugs, in the Scouts I worked my way up from Second to Patrol Leader and one day we were asked, would the senior ones of us help assemble Morrison shelters that were being delivered to homes in the Eastcote area? They were having difficulty getting anybody to erect them so several of us went with a Scout Master to some of these houses. They鈥檇 been asked to clear their dining room table out of the way and these shelters were actually bigger than a normal dining table. About as high, made of steel and put together like Meccano, an angle frame for the base, angle uprights and angle frame for the top, a steel sheet to be lifted - which is darned heavy to lift and put on. It on bolted then and then steel mesh sides, three of which were fixed and the long one on the access side that was hooked on and people were supposed to go in and sleep in this at night.

Although we didn鈥檛 have any shelter at home, we just stayed at home and stayed downstairs when there was a raid on badly. For quite a lot of the air raid warnings in the time of the Blitz there was a lot of gun fire from the anti-aircraft Artillery. One of the warnings we never worked out what it was. Rather than a siren wailing up and down in its tone, it was more of a hooter, it varied in intensity. And sometimes we said, 鈥榃ell, is it a mobile thing going round or is it a factory hooter which we鈥檇 never heard of in pre-war days?鈥� We never identified what that was.

Dad, when he did come back from Harrogate, he overhauled the bike that he鈥檇 had before the war. I walked it previously to the Scout Troop at St.Lawrences Church in Eastcote, this was about two miles away from home. Having walked to school and back, came home for lunch times, back again at tea time for home and then go back past the school and as far again the other way to the Scouts, so it was a lot of exercise during the war. We had blackout all the time, no street lights. We had a gas street lamp outside our house which obviously wasn鈥檛 lit during the war. And when I had my bike, it had to have a shield over the headlights so that the light would only shine down and there wasn鈥檛 much light anyway. But some of the nights coming back in winter time, there wasn鈥檛 the smoke haze or the street light pollution as they call it now so the moon light was extremely bright. Some nights you could see quite a lot of detail of the streets just by the moon light. We could see the glow in the sky from the raids on London. And Dad coming back from London at night time often said that he had been delayed, he was much later than he should have been because the train route was disrupted or the tube had been hit and such like.

But when I was in the Scouts I couldn鈥檛 use a cycle to go to the Scouts until I passed my Cyclist Badge! It was a condition that you had to be passed as proficient as a cyclist and be able to maintain your own cycle. They gave us a little bit of training. I had a cycle, when I was what, seven, a smaller one and this one of dad鈥檚 was a 28鈥� wheel, well most bikes were a 26鈥� wheel. It was large and fairly heavy. I used to cycle around because it was double summer time then, you had long evenings and once I鈥檇 done my homework I鈥檇 go for a cycle ride, at weekends. I used a London Central Red Bus route map to find my way about.

The other side of Eastcote was a place called Ruislip and there was a big reservoir for the Grand Union canal, a feeder and there was a Lido there before the war and some of them went swimming there. But it was virtually too far to cycle, it must have been about four miles to cycle there and go swimming and then cycle back again so I never did that. That鈥檚 one part of the Scouting I didn鈥檛 appreciate that I couldn鈥檛 get to my First Class badge because I couldn鈥檛 swim.

We did go camping, I suppose we had two or three very short camps but I can鈥檛 remember where. The one long we had was at Chesham Bois near Amersham and Chesham. There was a Scout training ground there and we had a good camp there and a good time, games through the woods, a hike along the valley and back again. The distraction was that there was the Chalfont to Chesham branch of the Metropolitan line of the London Transport ran along the bottom, a steam engine hauled it and pushed it. Luckily it was a fair distance away, we weren鈥檛 tempted to go down to sit on the line side or anything like that.

Another thing that I did with the Scouts - to get the Fireman鈥檚 badge they arranged for us to go to Harrow-on-the-Hill Fire Station for a training course for one night a week besides our Scouts night. So we had to walk to the Scout Head Quarters at Eastcote, St.Lawrence鈥檚 Church and then walk to Eastcote Tube Station then walk from South Harrow tube station which is at low level to the top of Harrow-on-the-Hill. We did a heck of a lot of walking! But if I鈥檇 had my cycle I could have cycled straight there, probably about a third of the total distance, but I had to walk.

I only ever went once or twice into the center of London during the war. Dad had been seeing a person in the Fire Watching Organisation for their offices and he got tickets for a display at the London Fire Brigade Head Quarters, at Lambeth and we went up and saw that. My father involved in Fire Watching and then when the Fire Watching part of it closed down he wanted to do something more so he joined the National Fire Service, Auxiliary Section and did two nights a week duty at Eastcote temporary Fire Station until that closed down. Because as the war went and on the risk of fires through Blitz died away they didn鈥檛 need so many night time fire watching activities. I didn鈥檛 actually go into London for anything else. In fact I didn鈥檛 go in at all until after the war was over. Went up to the Festival of Britain exhibition, there was an Air Scout exhibition at Earls Court, I went to that, otherwise I can鈥檛 remember much going on in that respect.

I don鈥檛 know how mother managed with the rations but she did cope, there were no perks in Pinner like you would get in out the countryside, no local farms or anything. We had to go and queue up. I went with her on Saturday mornings for the weekly shopping and obviously took my sister as well. I suppose we were about a mile and a half from Pinner main street, which is Bridge Street. I remember fairly early on we usually started at the bottom of Bridge Street and the first big shop was Woolworths, a few doors along there was Sainsbury鈥檚 where you had to queue up for each particular style of grocery. You couldn鈥檛 buy everything from one counter - you the dry goods, the butter and the bacon were all separate and the meat was separate. So you queued up, paid your coupons with your money. And a few shops further up was Salmon鈥檚 the London area hardware stores, they had branches everywhere. Then there was Walton鈥檚 the green grocers and fruiters and I got very upset one day fairly early on in the war because they had bananas hanging on a long rail inside the window, bunch after bunch of them. I was most upset when I couldn鈥檛 have a banana which I knew from pre-war days, they said, 鈥楴o, there are dummies, they are not for sale!鈥�

Then a lot of other smaller shops and then right at the top was another big food store 鈥楶ay and Take鈥�. Again that was sectionalised, there were various things you wanted to buy. Then there was the Post Office and then there was the cinema. I went there once or twice. I forget the films I went to see though. Then another time there was in a totally different direction, North Harrow there was a cinema I went to a couple of time. I think one was a Ministry of Information film, 鈥楩ires were started鈥� about the Fire Brigade in the wartime days.

My mother was looking after my sister and myself. My sister had rheumatic fever. I don鈥檛 know how many months she was in bed with it. We had to put a bed down in the dining room for her. She was in the bed in the corner of the room. I was on the corner of the table doing my homework.鈥�

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.