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My first recollection of the war was when I was 7 years old, in infant school, Seghill. We were issued with gasmasks in square bags to be carried too and from school. The classrooms windows were crossed with sticky brown papers and school hours were cut to 9am to 12 noon alternate weeks from 12 noon to 3 pm.

The village was preparing for the onset of war; my dad was in the home guard which he did after his duty in Seghill Pit. The home guard drilled and trained in the area, and this was exciting for me and my friends. Shelters were erected in the square and I recall lining the shelter with pinewood, emergency beds, tinned food and dried milk. Also the fire brigade shed was used to practise fire fighting in the event of bombes being dropped on the village, and this again was great excitement to us.

I recall in 1939 or 1940 when the village was bombed with incendiary bombs which dropped on ‘spice cake low’ and other locations. The sky was full of barrages balloons and we could see German planes firing at them in the sky. I remember the smell of fire and rubber was very strong. My mother and father where having our supper at 7pm when the back door was blasted open, the sneck poured of the walls and the sirens where going to get us in to the shelters which was 20 yards away. The bullets were pouring of the houses from the German aircrafts.
That was very frightening for us all but we survived. The sky was filled with barrage balloons and flack from guns at Benton, a German aeroplane was hit and came done in the area.
The explosions that night were horrendous, the railway station was hit and also the welfare playground and the houses were on fire. Seven people were killed that night. The next day the devastation was a nightmare, people were homeless and there were emergency services everywhere.
The invasion had been directed at Newcastle shipyards Vickes Armstrong etc.
The bravery of the community in Seghill was a life saver although I did not know it at the time. I remember the victory party in 1945.
I am now 73 years of age but I can still remember vividly the war.

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