大象传媒

I was born in December 1940 at the North Middlesex Hospital Silver Street Edmonton. This hospital suffered damage but I don鈥檛 know the extent or date.
My own personal recollections must date back to about 1943-44 as my mum used to place me in the back garden in the summer time and it was my job to tell mum if I heard the air raid siren. (The nearest siren to us was on the Great Cambridge Rd at Bury Street Edmonton). If the siren sounded we would take cover in the Anderson shelter which was half buried at the end of the garden. Mum used to use one of the bunks out of the shelter for me to sit on in the garden; it was just a wooden frame with thin strips of metal tacked across to support a cover. We spent some nights in the shelter and that was creepy as there were always spiders and woodlice, I can remember my mum standing outside and talking to the neighbours. I do not remember any explosions as such but our houses suffered damage as two blocks of houses in Hazelwood Rd (which was next to Alberta Rd in Bush Hill Park Edmonton) were flattened. I was told later in life that the roofs of our houses actually moved 4鈥� and the exterior walls cracked from window openings upstairs to downstairs openings.

One event that stands out in my mind even today was one afternoon I was in the garden when a low flying plane came over and I could see the pilot in the canopy and he actually waved to me. Enfield and Edmonton were targets because of the industry along the Lee valley by the canal, there was the rolling mills and small arms factories, plus the main line railway from London to Cambridge etc. After the war as kids we used to play around the tanks of water which were erected for fire fighting, there were two in our area. My mother always went to Edmonton Green to buy her vegetables from the Barrow Boys as money was very tight there were three of us children but my older brother and sister were evacuated to Hampshire.
Mum said several times the sirens went and everyone used to take cover in shop doorways or wherever when the raid was on and she said the shrapnel used to fall from bursting anti aircraft fire.
On V.J night we went to London and I can remember being on the Albert memorial outside Buckingham Palace and seeing the news man standing on the roof of a vehicle and cranking his camera whilst filming the crowds. Also there was a display in Green Park planes or vehicles.

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