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Every Sunday evening during 1940 I always visited my fiance’s parents who lived in St Phillips. One night I left there about 9 pm and got caught up in an air raid. The bombs were falling in St Phillips and I was rescued by the proprietor of the Jolly Sailor, and all his customers went down to the cellar. They had put candles onto beer barrels and we were all given a tot of whisky. That helped us relax until the ‘all clear’ sounded. By this time it was 12 o’clock midnight.

This was the time when Castle Street and Wine Street and surrounding areas such as the Bristol Castle were bombed, and along Clarence Road, which had a drapery stores which was on fire. Eventually I was able to find my way home.

On January 7th 1941 I married my fiance. My mother laid on a little spread for friends and family. On our wedding night we went to stay with Arthur (my husband)’s parents in Princess Street in St Phillips. That night the air raid warning went and we had to go downstairs into the shelter, where we spent the rest of the night.

I had to go to work the next day at Hutchings the shoe manufacturer. There was no honeymoon. I started married life with £3 and a blanket chest! I had had to borrow £5 from my sister to buy the bundle of blankets, and then I bought the chest from the Club at one pound five shillings. Arthur had £10; and that was how we started married life.

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