大象传媒

When war was declared I was twelve and attended Spencer Council School. At school, if the air raid warning sounded, we had to be able to get home in five minutes or stay at school in the school air raid shelter. We always got home inside five minutes. I lived at 7 Flemingate.

At school we had a gas shed. You always had to carry your gas mask with you, ALWAYS. We often had to go into the gas shed to test the gas masks. Other schools also had to come. No sweets, no eggs, no lemons, food was very scarce; no school dinners. I left school at 14 and went straight to work at the tannery, Richard Hodgson & Sons, on Flemingate; where the transport museum was.

Night time, with no lights, was really weird until you got used to it. On a Saturday and Sunday you could not walk from Wednesday Market to St Mary鈥檚 Church with out bumping into people. Beverley was full of Army and RAF personnel. There were French, Poles, Australians, New Zealanders and Dutch, I could never name them all. Dances held at Hodgsons鈥� Ball Room were always full with queues 100 yds long, no beer, no cigars or cigarettes. All the cinemas were full, the Regal, the Playhouse and the Marble Arch, where Safeway was.

One bank holiday my friend and I were at the Marble Arch when there was this almighty bang. The cinema shook. On the screen flashed, 鈥淧eople living on Flemingate to return home鈥�. We got to the level crossing at Flemingate; the police wouldn鈥檛 let us through, even when we said we lived there. So we went round by Priory Road and came in that way. What we saw was that my friends鈥� house was demolished; all the windows, tiles and doors had gone from my house. One of my aunts had a bandaged head with blood all over her. My mother was shaken and scared but OK. My other aunt, who was an invalid and couldn鈥檛 walk, was OK.

We had nowhere to sleep, then Mr Odey, who owned the tannery, and his wife, invited us to sleep in their house, the manor on Keldgate. The manor had a bathroom with a bath; we only had a tin one with five inches of water allowed.

One night, standing in the street, an aircraft came flying across. It was on fire. We all cheered. It crashed on Hull Road and we went to see it next day. It was a Spitfire and we had shot down our own plane.

There was an unexploded bomb down Spark Mill Lane, near the dam. We all went to see it.

Once, when walking across Saturday Market near the Market Cross, a German plane came over machine gunning everything. We got into the shelter in time.

When VE Day arrived we had the biggest party ever. It was in a ten foot where the chemical factory is now. Lights were on all night; there were trestle tables with food on from one end to the other. We had a small band, barrels of beer and there was dancing all night. It will always be remembered.

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