大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/大象传媒 Radio Nottingham on behalf of Mr Ashby with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I remember that there were prisoners of war working at Stanton, mainly Italians. They were very good at making and engraving rings and miniature clogs etc.

I have many more general memories of the war years. During the war years everyone was issued with a gas mask. We thought we looked like spacemen with them on. Blackout curtains had to be fitted to all the houses, no streetlights were on. Bus and car headlights were fitted with metal hoods with slits in them to dim the light and shine it downwards. One incident that occured during the blackout was when a police sergeant was invited for a meal to a friends house. After the meal he left, only to return with a constable later and summonsed the family for showing a light in the window.

Clothes were rationed, but one of my most vivid memories were of women wearing fully fashioned nylons with a seam down the back. Some of which were obtained from American soldiers.

All the food was of course rationed. Everyone had a ration book full of coupons and there were posters everywhere telling everyone to dig for victory by growing your own vegetables. Queues formed at shops as soon as word spread that a certain shop had a delivery of fruit or whatever. Most houses in those days had a fireplace with a boiler one side and an oven the other. There was a stand for the kettle and usually a scuttle or bucket of coal and a small dustpan. The fireplace had to be blackleaded every week and the front doorstep painted red and polished with Cardinal polish. There would be a rug on the floor that Mum had made with a rug peg and old clothes that had been cut up and attached to a Hessian backing. There was a small copper and fire in the kitchen where the clothes were boiled before they were put in a wooden tub to be ponched with a wooden ponch. Then they were put through a mangle and mangled till they were nearly dry, then hung out on the washing line if it was dry or hung on the clothes horse if it was wet.

Finally I would just like to remember the vital work done by the women in World War II. The Women's Land Army, the ATS, the WAAFS and the Wrens plus all the women who worked in factories etc up and down the land and did all the jobs that the soldiers had left behind. Well done to them all.

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