大象传媒

I was born in 1941 - a war baby! My father was a self-employed family butcher, and was away serving in the R.A.F. We lived in a terraced corner house. The ground floor was the butcher's shop, with a front door for the customers, a back-yard and out-houses (a boiler-house, coalhouse and outside lavatory).

There was a door on the side of the terraced house, leading to a flight of staires to the living quarters. My mother used to leave my pram at the bottom of the stairs, behind the door where sometimes I would be left, in the pram, waiting for my mother to take me out, or go to the shops.

Late one afternoon, German bombers flew over Consett to target Consett Iron Company. Luckily they missed their target by some distance; the bombs hit the local Blackhill cemetary, about two hundred yards from the side of the house. Gallaghers builder's yard was set on fire, demoloshing the joiner's shop and the other work buildings, across the other side of the road.

A piece of shrapnel, about nine inches long with a point at the end, came crashing through our side door and landed in my pram. Fortunately I wasn't in my pram at the time, hence my lucky escape.

I remember my mother telling me the story when I was older, and I held the heavy piece of shrapnel in my hand. Over the years, memories of the War have faded. I no longer have that piece of shrapnel, but it made a good door-stop for a while - and a topic of conversation!

This story was told by Barry Speeding to his wife Alma Speeding, and typed up by their son, Mark Speeding of Gateshead Libraries.

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