大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Mrs A Styler and has been added with her permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

When the war started I was five years old, and I lived in Collyhurst, Manchester, which was quite close to the city centre.

There was a large brick-built air raid shelter in our street, but my mum said that we kids would be ok sleeping downstairs in the bunk beds that my dad had made. She would sit under the table whenever the siren went until the 'all-clear' signal.

We had an open fire in those days, but coal was rationed and very scarce. As we got older, my brother and I had to push a home-made cart to the coke yard (coke being a form of anthracite-fuel, smokeless) which was about a mile away. This had to be done before we went to school. My dad was in the R.A.F., and my mum worked on the goods railway.

In the truck we had a sack, and at the coke yard we'd join the queue. When it was our turn, we held a sack open next to a long shute, then an employee would pull a handle and one hundredweight (CWT) of coke would come rushing down into our sack. If any spilt, we would collect it quickly, every piece was precious. This cost 1/6 d. (拢7.50 today).

We then had to push this heavy cartload up a steep hill (Gould Street), hurrying home and praying a wheel wouldn't come off. It happened sometimes, and on those occasions we were late for school.

Coke was great for a fire. There were no flames, but it got red hot, and it was fantastic to make a toast with a long handled fork. I still wonder, what happened to it?

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